Chronicles of the Dark Land
by Talktalkaol
Summary: A group of friends all purchase the newest hit title Chronicles of the Dark Land, A popular game based of the extremely famous Sword Art Online. Watch as our heroes struggle with their own inner demons while trying to get out alive.
1. Chapter 1 - The Beginning

(Author's Note: This is my first attempt at a major project, so if it's bad... feel free to blame me: if it's good, please leave a review, as it would honestly mean a lot. Also, this isn't my story, but rather a friend's, but he hasn't got an account on this site and so is using my account to post this. It'll be coming out 1 or two chapters at a time, depending how quickly and how long it takes for him to write, what with having to balance out school studies, writing this, etc. I hope you enjoy, and if you have any questions, be free to ask, I'll pass them on to him and he'll anwser them, and I'll get back to you about it)

The man walked forward, his red cape trailing behind him "Hmm…" he looks at the screen "Sales are amazing already… I can't believe this…"

"Akihiko Kayaba, Sir?"

"Yes?" Akihiko turns around to face the person behind him "What is it?"

"Heathcliff's Grandson is here to see you about the… 'offer'…"

"Let him in…" he turns back to the computer monitor "And let the games… begin…"

"Heh, Akihiko…" the teen walked in, he was about eighteen in age with icy blue eyes and black hair with a yellow streak in it "You wanted to make an offer?"

Akihiko turns, a small smile forming on his lips "yes, but if I am honest, I did not think you would show up at all, although you did… so congratulations, the offer is still open…"

"Course it is, there's no one better than me to do this" the teen smirked

"Confident, like your father…"

Walking forward, the teen showed a glimmer in his icy eyes "Show me what it is you want from me"

"Gladly…" Akihiko turns, walking towards a bed with a bedside desk beside it; an off-line nerve-gear sitting on the desk "Now… this is what you do, Connor…"

Six gamers who had started playing a fairly new game known as Chronicles of the Dark Lands which was a virtual reality game that used the nerve gear that was in the same vein as the famous 'Sword art online' and the less popular 'ALfheim online'. The players had met at the first town of the game, known as the town of Balmoral in the tavern called the 'Drunken Huntsman'. There was an awkward silence as the six gamers sat around a badly made wooden table with spills of blood and alcohol on it.

"So, um… what do you call a guy with no body and just a nose…?"

There was an even more awkward silence as the other five turned to him staring in either disappointment or regret, knowing what was about to happen-

"Nobody knows!"

"That was a crap joke Adam" Ross looked over in dismay, clearly annoyed at the joke the thief had tried to pull, before looking over to the red-haired warrior leaning on the table "Can I kill him Dan?"

Dan gave a sigh, shaking his head "No Ross, remember the last time? You snapped someone's neck after they threatened you with a pen knife…"

Adam gave a small, nervous cough as he tried to regain what little self-respect he had "Anyway… so, when are we heading out and starting this?"

Tomm looks over, shaking his head "not long now hopefully…" then looks over to Dan "What are we waiting for anyway?"

Dan glances over at Joel, who had finally managed to open his inventory and sort himself out "Nothing, now that Joel's finally figured out the controls we can go…" and stands up straight then walking out, followed by the others when-

"Hey… Guys?" Megan looked at the five boys "Have you seen this?" and takes a letter out of her inventory and holding it out

Ross nods, as the others took their letters out of their inventories "Can we read them?"

"Well, there's nothing stopping us" Dan muttered, opening the letter "Let's see what this is about…" and starts reading it aloud-

'Dear Players, as you have probably noticed, you have no log-out option. This is no technical fault, but rather…a challenge, if you die in this game, you die in real life although you have three 'lives'… essentially, this is a literal game of life and death, all you simply have to do is beat the one hundred levels of the EverHollow tower… good luck, and best wishes. Signed by Creator Akihiko Kayaba'

Joel raised an eyebrow curiously, "So… we can't leave…?" then looks at the other five "Well that royally fucks up my plans to get the highest kill count out of all of us!"

Dan showed a sly smirk "Heh, makes this all the more fun…" then looks at the others "Well, if your all ready, I guess we can head out".

Dan turned and walked towards the dusty stone path that headed to a nearby field where other players were training, and was followed by the other five…


	2. Chapter 2 - The First Boss

The six gamers gathered in front of a large pair of rotting wooden doors that appeared to be barely attached to their hinges…

"Everyone ready?" Dan looked at the others, before checking his inventory and stats "Level 11… dual short swords… yep, I'm geared up" then closes his inventory and draws his two swords "Right, so what's the plan?"

"Ross is the bulkiest, so he should lead first. Megan will stay back and fire her revolver at it" Tom turns to Adam "you distract it and try to possibly get some bonus loot from it" and then finally turns to Dan "since we're the only real attackers, we'll go in behind Ross. One of us helps protect him while the other attacks."

"Hey! What about me?" Joel looked over huffing, crossing his arms

Tom rolled his eyes slightly, then turned to the monk then realised- "Actually, scratch that last part. Dan, you attack it from behind, I'll go from the front and Joel can help Ross protect Megan"

Ross nods "sounds fine" he chuckles, drawing his hammer and holding it out "Wonder what it will be…"

"We'll find out" Dan murmured, pushing the large wooden doors open as the six of them walked into the large, damaged corridor.

"Guys, look!" Joel pointed to the staircase at the end of the corridor "The next floor! Let's go!" and ran towards the staircase when-

"Joel!" Megan yelled pointing upwards "Get back!"

Joel stopped, turning "why, what's" before being interrupted by a crash as a large blue boulder smashed into the ground behind him. Joel gulped slightly, then turned around slowly and looked at the boulder "Right, I see"

"GGRRAAAOOOGGHHH!" the blue boulder slowly crumbled as a large blue being broke out of it. When it had finally broken out, the thing stood at about 50-foot-tall and appeared to be made out of a royal blue shade of Metal

Joel sighed "ah crap" then yells, jumping backwards to avoid getting crushed by its fist.

Writing appears in front of it that reads: "Brulgrunn the Vupril Golem" and five greens bars came up, indicating it had five health bars.

Tom shook his head annoyingly "Damn it Joel!" then drew his sword and shield "let's go! Megan, get back. Ross and Joel, stay back and protect her. Adam, the knife of bloodloss won't do anything to it, so just distract it. Dan, you go back, I'll go front"

"Got it!" Dan dashed forward, sliding under the golem's legs and getting up, rapidly slashing the back of its legs while Tom was rapidly attacking the front of the lower legs.

"Joel, don't!" Ross looked over while Joel ran at Brulgrunn and jumped upwards, intending to punch the golem when-

"Ahh!" Brulgrunn grabbed Joel in his large hand, and chucked him into the back wall, launching Joel though the wall and leaving him with barely any health left

"Damn it Joel, you retard!" Ross snapped, raising a hand towards Joel and casting heal before facing forwards again and raising his shield and using Defensive stance, protecting himself and Megan from a large rock chucked at them.

Joel shook his head, standing up "Thanks Ross…"

"Dan, now!"

"Got it!" Dan dashed forward, putting both swords forward "How about this?" then jumps in the air so he was in front of Brulgrunn's chest "Take… THIS!" and swung rapidly, causing the golem to stumble backwards before thrusting both blades forward and putting them though the Golem's chest and landed.

"Dan!" Joel yelled "It's still-" and was interrupted as the Golem made a low groan, collapsing backwards and exploding into blue shards of Vupril ore.

"Dead" Dan chuckled, sheathing his swords as they all got a message on their screen saying: "Congratulations! You have defeated Brulgrunn the Vupril Golem! You have obtained a 'Vupril Shield of defence'. Please proceed to the staircase in front of you and enter the town of Hazelholde"

"YESS!" Joel yelled, fist-pumping the air "I got Hadouken!"

Tom sweatdrops "Joel, it's called Fire Ball…"

"Hadouken"

"Fire Ball"

"Hadouken!"

"Fire Ball!"

Ross walks over, grabbing them both by the back of their heads and thrusting them forward, causing them to head-butt each other "Shut up" then walks over and joins the others as Dan, Megan and Adam walked upstairs and entered the next floor.

"Hado-" Joel looks around "Wait…" then him and Tom turn to the staircase, seeing everyone else had left

"Hey!" they both yell, running to the staircase "Wait up!"…

The six gamers approached a tavern that was on a cliff edge that over-looked the ocean, a red sign hanging by the door read that the tavern was called "The Natural Ocean Tavern" and from the looks of, it seemed like a warm place with laughter and jeers being heard coming from within.

"For a tavern, this place seems nice" Megan chuckled, a slight smile on her face as they opened the polished wooden door and walked in.

"Top of the afternoon to ya" The Bartender smiled, he appeared to have an Irish accent as he waved a hand, calling them over "You six stuck in this death game too?"

Adam nods "Yea, how about you?"

"Yea, I am…but I thought that since I'm a bartender in the real world, and I may never leave, I may as well become a bartender in this world too"

"Smart move my man, I'm guessing the gold's decent?"

"Heh" The Bartender scoffed "10 gold a drink seems like a rip-off, but hey, least it gets the customers rollin' in" then looks over as another person approached. This person seemed to wear nothing but a brown, tattered cloak and a dagger on his waist in a sheath who put 10 gold on the bar "Steward, could I get another one?"

Steward shook his head "alright Jordan, if you insist…"

The six of them turned to the Homeless person in shock

"Jordan?" Joel shook his head "what…why are you even here and why didn't you tell me you were getting this game?"

"I wanted a challenge and I wanted to surprise" he smiles, looking at them under the rim of his hood "so here I am…" then turns to a board that hung up on a wall behind the bar "Again…? Why do they even bother…?"

Dan looks over raising an eyebrow "what's up?"

Jordan points to the board "A guild by the name of 'Puffle' has been at the bottom of the clan leader boards since this game began…"

Ross face plants "Please don't tell me it's…"

"Luke, Morgan and George?" Jordan raised an eyebrow "Yep, those three…"

Tom sighed "why would they even want to play this game? They're not even good gamers!"

Dan chuckles "Heh, bet they die to a boss"

"I wouldn't be surprised…" murmured Adam, looking over to them "shouldn't we prepare for the next boss?"

"Yea" Joel nods "I do want to try out my Hadouken!"

Tom huffs turning to him "Its Fire Ball damn it!"

Dan walked forward, drawing both blades and putting them to their necks "Shut up the pair of you, otherwise I'll make you two lose a life here and now"

Steward chuckles nervously "Heh, you six friends or enemies?"

Megan shrugs, chuckling slightly "I'm not sure myself…"

Jordan turns to them "So, can I join you lot? We can work together"

"Sure" Ross smiled "Make the journey more fun as well"

''Grammar, Ross''

''Don't care, Joel'' and turns "let's go guys, we should go get ready"

"Right, enjoy your journey!" Steward called, waving as they left. But as soon as they left he went behind the counter, opening his inventory and bringing out what appears to be a communicator "Oi, I got an interestin' bit of news for ya…"

"Oh really…?" the voice on the other side murmured, sounding hardly interested "What now? Another crap gang thinking they're tough?"

"Kind of, theirs seven of them and they seem pretty decent, they're heading to the fields to train before taking the boss on…"

"Hmm…?" there was a slight chuckle from the other side of the communicator "I'll have to keep an eye on them, heh heh…"

"Got it, over and out…" Steward turns the communicator off, then rolled his sleeves down, hiding the emblem of a grey dragon in a shield on his arm which had writing underneath which read 'The Crystal Dragon Brotherhood'…


	3. Chapter 3 - The Crystal Swordsman

**AN: Thank you to those who left reviews on the first couple of chapters, it means a lot :D really, it does. By the way, I do not own Sword Art Online, although it would be cool and that way i could turn this into a season of the anime. As before, if you have any questions, please feel free to PM this account and my friend will let me know what they are, over and out.**

* * *

The seven players walked into the large corridor, their weapons drawn as they approached the center of the room

"You guys ready?" Joel looked around nervously "I wonder what this thing will be…"

There was a roar, as a large…pink…thing? Dropped from the roof, landing in front of them and swinging its morning star

Tomm sweat drops "Well crap! Does anyone have any ideas on how to beat this thing?"

"Hey guys?" Adam chuckled

"Adam…" Ross turns to him "Don't you dare…"

"What do you call a sheep with no legs?" he smiled, looking at the other six, as the boss approached "A cloud!"

"…" Everyone sweatdrops, when suddenly a roar of laughter is heard-

"GAHAHAH! Sheep with no legs…! GAHAHAHAHA!" the boss stepped backwards, but had suddenly tripped and fell onto its weapon, the morning star going through its spine breaking it and instantly killing the boss. "Congratulations! You have killed the Hell Spawn! You didn't get any loot though… please proceed to the next floor!"

"…are you serious…?" Dan raised an eyebrow "that was easier than the first one… it didn't even…" he sheathed his weapons, raising and lowering his hands repeatedly in confusion "But… how? WHAT? WHY?!"

Adam chuckled "heh, my jokes are that amazing" he shrugs "I guess I just have the power to kill things in a single line"

Jordan face-palmed "Let's just go…" and as they turned to walk towards the staircase-

"Hold it right there!"

The seven players turned hearing the voice. At the other end of the corridor was a tall man, he appeared about 24 in age wearing a black long coat with a strange sword and shield strapped to his back. The sword was about 4 and a half feet long (including the handle) while the handle itself was a royal purple colour with a cross guard of light yellow. The blade itself was made of a mysterious black metal that seemed to have a slight glow coming off it, as if light was reflecting off the blade. The shield was circular in shape which was also royal purple, like the sword's handle, with an emblem in the middle, which was that of a grey dragon with gleaming red eyes in a shield, wings spread wide and body fully stretched out, as if getting ready to fly into the air. He had a black helm that looked like a knight's helmet on that matched his coat with his visor up revealing his face; he had messy brown hair and light blue eyes that looked like they could have hid a dark secret. He walked forward slowly, clapping "I have to admit that was quite impressive. You didn't even fight it and you made the next floor open for all of us, thank you…"

Joel raised his fists "Hey! Who are you?!"

"Heh heh" the stranger began, smiling slightly "I guess I should introduce myself… my name, is…" he stopped briefly, noticing Joel had starting running towards him and frowned. "Hmph, insolent brat…!" just as Joel was about to punch him- The stranger drew his shield and smacked Joel with it, launching him into a wall "You ask for my name, then attempt to attack me… how rude"

Megan looked over "Joel!"

Joel groaned, getting up weakly and looking at his health bar "Grr… Alright then how's this?" crouching down with his hands behind an orb of blue flames appears in them, then while launching it at the mysterious stranger shouted "HADOUKEN!"

The figure smirked, drawing his sword and cutting the fire in half with little effort and clean accuracy, as if he had used a sword all his life "Is that the best you have? And you monks all call yourselves powerful…" he sheathed his sword and shield as he watched Joel go back to the group mumbling "fuckin cheat" while being healed by Ross

"Now, where was I…?" the figure clicked his fingers "oh yes… my name…"and stepped forward "My name, is Alatheus… Alatheus Ziaran"

"How do we know that we can trust you?" Tomm rose an eyebrow, unsure of this person "I mean… you just showed up out of nowhere…"

Alatheus chuckles, pushing up his sleeve and revealing the Crystal Dragon Brotherhood Emblem that was tattooed into his upper arm "You can trust me, on my honour as Leader of the Crystal Dragon Brotherhood…"

"Cool, you're the leader of a guild?" Ross asked curiously

"Yes, my good man… and I, on behalf of all the current players, thank you for clearing this floor so quickly…"

"Why don't you join us?" asked Jordan "we could always use more team mates, and it'll be more fun to travel in a larger group"

"Thanks, but no thank you… I must advance floors only when the guild feels ready…" he turns and steps towards the door, but stops before going through the door, looking over his shoulder at them "You're welcome to join the Crystal Dragon Brotherhood, if… you ever need a guild". He walks out the door, heading back to the open plains of floor eight.

"Boy, he sure is a strange guy…" Joel murmurs, rubbing his forehead "He's really strong though…"

"Strong, heh…" Dan chuckled looking over at him "you're just really pathetic, you need to start training again"

Joel growled, turning to him "oh yea? I could take you down easily!"

Dan scoffs, rolling his eyes "Sure tough guy, come on, let's get to floor nine" and turns, as the seven of them head up the stairs, continuing to the next floor

Alatheus chuckles, opening his inventory and getting the communicator out "Steward, I see what you meant by those seven kids…"

"You mean you found them? Did you kill them all?" Steward replied, the Bartender may have only been on floor two, but news travels quickly…

"No, the monk… 'Joel' ran at me, but I simply backhanded him… he thought he stood the slightest chance at hitting me, although that went quickly wrong for him"

"Heh… I should have expected that, boss…"

Alatheus smiled, opening his inventory and looking at his level and stats, which read: Level 34, Health: 15000

"The monk tried to hurt me, but wouldn't have stood a chance even if he did lay a hit on me… even if all of them decided to attack me at once, it wouldn't have done anything"

"So, what's the plan, Boss?"

"We follow them to floor 25 and once they've beaten the boss, we'll send Jonathon and Damian to see if they can handle the kids. If they lose, it'll be a shame and an embarrassment to the guild and they'll have to be dealt with, but if they win…" he grins slightly "Well, It will be interesting to finally get some opponents worthy of the Crystal Dragon Brotherhood" he pauses, then talks into the communicator again "Steward, get back on duty, and report to me if you find anyone else interesting, and remember our main objective"

"Got it boss…" and the communicator turns to static, as Alatheus puts it back in his inventory and walks off slowly…


	4. Chapter 4 - The Daughter of Lilith

**AN: Thank you for the reviews, they mean a lot, they really do :D and Smith, regarding your question-**

 **The Crystal Swordsman Alatheus "Yes, I appear more in the future"**

 **Me: "Alatheus, I didn't ask you to-"**

 **Alatheus:** **"I know, but considering you left the damned door open..."**

 **Me: "The door...? Ah crap, knew I forgot something... anyway, hope you lot enjoy the next chapter, over and out!" :D**

"That last boss was pathetic" Joel chuckled as they walked up the staircase and entered floor twenty-five

"Joel, you got punched… by its foot!" Ross taunted, face palming, "it didn't even touch the rest of us…"

Dan rolled his eyes; Joel was being the same person as he always was, one of the biggest pricks in gaming history, "I still don't get how that's even possible…"

"Hello there" a girl smiled as she walked over, she had a heavy Italian accent and looked about seventeen, with light purple eyes and a bubbly smile "Welcome to floor twenty-five, the Grand Casino floor, and the home of the legendary Mithril Casino"

Adam walks over to her, raising an eyebrow and standing beside her with a small smirk on his face "Hey gal"

"Um… may I help you?" The girl sweat drops slightly, stepping to the side

"Adam" Megan huffed, placing her hands on her hips in disgust "Quit pestering the poor girl" then turns to the girl "Apologies, Adam is a loner in both this world and the real world, he's just that desperate for attention"

The girl chuckles lightly "it's no problem" then clicks her fingers and curtsies "My name is Crystal; I am a dancer at the Casino"

Dan smiled "Name's Dan" he points to Joel and Ross "That's Moron and Ross"

"Hey!" Joel yells, raising his hand and giving Daniel the middle finger "Go fuck yourself, and my name is Joel!"

Dan nods to Adam "Mr Fail-to-Flirt over there is Adam" and finally points to Tomm and Megan "and that there is the pair of lovebirds, Tomm and Megan"

Crystal smiles, nodding "Ok, I got to go, but will I see you guys later at the casino?"

Adam nods, wrapping an arm around her shoulders "Sure thing Beautiful"

Crystal smiles nodding, then slips out of his arm and dashes to the Casino

Tomm face-palmed "Adam…" then simply sighs, not bothering to finish his sentence…

"Hey, wait!" Adam yelled, raising a hand

Crystal turned, hearing him "Hmm?"

"Could I come with you? Just to get to know you better?"

"Sure" she smiled, as Adam ran over and joined her, the two of them heading towards the Casino…

"So…" Adam smiled putting his arm around her shoulder "What's it like being a dancer for a famous casino?"

"Umm… it pays a lot of money, which helps with supporting the family, buying food and water… you know"

Adam nods, smiling "yea, I get ya…"

Dan raised an eyebrow as they watched Adam and Crystal leave "who else thinks this could go wrong so, so quickly…?"

Ross nods in agreement "bet you it won't last long…"

"Come on guys" Joel shrugged slightly "give him a try at least, I mean, you never know… this could work out for them"

Tomm gave what sounded between a laugh and a snort "in his dreams…"

A couple of hours pass, and the six remaining gamers are training in a field when Crystal and Adam approach them, something in her hands and him smiling "you seven are heading towards the boss room, right?"

Jordan nods "Yes" then pulls a bag full of confetti out of his jacket and chucks it at Joel "Buffs be upon you, good sir!"

"Thanks!" Joel catches the bag, and opens it to reveal… an explosion which launched him (again) through a Tree that stood next to the Casino.

"GODDAMMIT JORDAN!"

Crystal sweat-drops slightly "Ok…"

"Don't mind them, their morons" Dan interrupts "but yea, we're heading towards the boss" he nods

"Hey Dan" Jordan called out

"What?" Dan turned, looking at him

"Duck"

Dan ducks as Jordan throws a bag to the girl "Buffs be upon you, my dear"

Crystal was unsure at first after witnessing what happened with Joel and the first bag, but opened the bag anyway to reveal… 250 gold coins

"Thanks" Crystal smiled sweetly, then looked at them "Come on, I'll take you to the boss room"

They arrive at the boss room, but something is not right… They look around the room expectantly, but it soon became apparent that the room was empty.

"Umm…" Joel looked around "Where's the big death thingy?"

Ross looked over at Joel with a blank expression, then face-palms "Fucking hell Joel, I knew you were retarded, but…"

Tomm steps forward "It is strange that there is no boss… what's going on?"

"Umm… may I ask all of you something… before you go?" Crystal looked at them, a slight blush on her cheeks "Do you… think I'm beautiful?"

Adam nods "Beautiful? You're not…"

Crystal twitched, before Adam finished his sentence- "You're beyond Beautiful"

Dan nods, a small smile on his face "I agree with Adam on that, you're beautiful Crys"

She blushed deeply, glancing away embarrassed "T-Thank you…"

Finally, it was down to Joel's answer… "Umm… I mean you're nice but not my type"

"W-What… was… that…?"

Jordan sweat-drops, as they all stepped backwards slightly "Is it me… or is shit going down?"

Crystal's smiled had vanished instantly and her hands were giving the smallest, but still noticeable, twitches as a purple flame-like aura slowly appeared around her, eyes gleaming slightly…

Ross turned to Joel "Really? You gay bastard, couldn't you wait till AFTER we left to say that?"

Crystal giggled quietly, which became louder and louder until it became a shriek and was surrounded by an aura that was royal purple in colour "You'll all have a pleasant death in hell!" there was a blinding flash, as she now floated there in her true form, a Succubus. She had large bat wings coming from her shoulder blades and was wearing a purple veil, like a wedding dress but was more transparent and had two bracelets; one on each wrist, her hair was platinum in colour and went down her back, stopping just past the ro of her thighs.

"I'm guessing this is the boss?" Joel asked

"No Joel, she's a random fucking enemy," Ross sighed clearly fed up with Joel,

Dan sighed, drawing his blades "Can't just be straight for once can you?"

"I'M… NOT… GAY!" Joel yelled, getting angry like he always did when they called him gay

"Can we just kill this thing please?" Tomm sighed, drawing his sword and shield

Writing appeared in front of the Succubus reading: "Lucy the Vain" and fourteen green health bars come up beside it.

Megan unholsters her revolver "Cover me" and started firing shots at Lucy's head

who laughed, raising her hands in front of her which put up a reflective shield, causing the bullets to simply bounce off around the room as she giggled insanely

"She can reflect Bullets?!" Joel yells, "But I bet you can't block this…" charging up a blue flaming orb between his hands "HADOUKEN!"

Lucy smiled devilishly, vanishing suddenly-

"Ach!" Joel spins around "Where is she? Where…"

"Right here Hunnie bun" she grins appearing behind him. She brought her hand up, her fingers in a claw-like shape, as Joel was suddenly lifted into the air by a purple aura and hung there spasing in pain as she drained his health

"Joel" Dan yelled, dashing forward and jumping, slashing Lucy's back in mid-air which had caused her to screech and drop Joel

"Thanks…" Joel murmured, as Ross healed him. The seven looked at each other as they realised this would be a tough fight…

"Ah!" Tomm groaned as he is launched into a wall, slumping to the ground in pain, shaking his head gently and standing up "grr… Bitch!"

Lucy floated backwards weakly; landing "Gu… u…" then shook herself, standing up "Sorry Boys…" then exploded into a purple fire-like aura "but playtime, is over…!" She smiled, raising her hands, as there was a blinding light

Adam raised a hand to his eyes, shielding them "Crystal!" moving towards her "Crys! Joel didn't mean it, Calm down, please!"

"Damn it Adam!" Ross shook his head; his eyes shielded as well "That isn't Crystal! You can't reason with her, she won't listen!"

"Mmm… Fine!" Adam removed his hand from his eyes, drawing his knife of bloodloss from its sheath and dashed forward; "Sorry girl, but I gotta do this!" he jumped, slashing horizontally at the Succubus' torso

"AAAHHHH!"

There was a massive explosion, knocking all the players back into a wall…

The smoke cleared, as the gamers stood up.

Dan rubbed his head painfully from when he had hit the wall "did we…win?"

Megan murmured, getting out of the wall weakly before standing, shaking her head "No, look…" and points towards the staircase, where Lucy is seen kneeling, hands across her torso, crying in pain

Joel gets up, and runs towards the figure intending to finish it with a single punch "Die Bitch!"

The figure's head snaps up suddenly, and she vanishes-

"Wha…" Joel mumbles, looking around for Crystal "Succu-Bitch more like!" he yelled

Lucy appears right in front of Joel, "Bad boy…!" kicking him rapidly, and launches him back into the wall

Lucy giggles insanely, letting her arms fall to her sides and walks towards them, her torso bleeding heavily, and her dress was badly torn and covered in blood, with some blood on her face as well. She smiled, giggling insanely before coughing up some blood "…you thought you could win…?" her purple eyes glow "T-The fun begins N-Now… are you R-Ready…? HeeHehe…" her aura becomes stronger and she laughs again

Dan groans, then looked at Lucy's health bars "She has two bars left… this must be her enraged form… but she doesn't seem mad at all…"

"T-that's because I-I'm not…" Lucy giggles walking forward weakly, her bat-like wings spreading out and her eyes glow purple

"I'm… h-having lots of f-fun… HeeHee…"

"Take this!" A figure dashed forward, speeding past them and slashing upward with their weapon, launching Lucy into a wall that created an explosion as she made contact with the wall

"Who?" Tomm turns, looking at the person who had just appeared-

Alatheus turns to them, frowning slightly "You kids ok?"

Joel shook his head "you again! Where the hell'd you come from?"

He chuckles "I see you remember me…" Turning to Lucy "this isn't her enraged state, by the way; she reaches that when on her last health bar…"

Lucy frowns weakly, dragging herself forward "Spoil-sport… I h-have to kill you n-now…" and smiled as she watched her health vanish and go onto its last bar "HeeHee…" she was surrounded in the purple aura yet again, her eyes going a dark purple as she smiled "here we go!" Then speeds forward at Alatheus, intending to sink her poison-coated nails into his skin

Alatheus puts a foot back to brace himself and draws his sword "Come at me, Bitch" then dashing forward and raising his sword to counter her nails, swinging his leg around and catching the back of her legs, knocking her to the ground and swinging his sword downwards.

Lucy smiled insanely, disappearing and reappearing in front of Alatheus, slashing at him

Megan swears and so reloads her revolver "come on guys, he needs our help!" and pulls the trigger repeatedly, but Lucy turned and raises the reflective wall, making the bullets bounce away yet again "Damn…" Megan hissed

Dan, Ross and Tomm dashed forward, both drawing their blades while Ross held his hammer out "Now!"

Lucy turned to them, just as the three blades struck her, severing her arms and as the hammer struck her directly in the stomach, launching her into a wall

"Guuh!" she screams as she hits the wall, falling to her knees and vomiting up blood "Gi… uhh…." Lucy slumped forward, her arms cut off and weakly sitting on her knees, unable to move…

Dan, Ross and Tomm chuckled, and high-five each other as Alatheus walked over and stood in front of her, watching as her last health drains to nearly nothing, "one last hit should do the trick…"

Alatheus holds his sword to her neck, and smiles slightly "Any last words foul Demon?"

"Y-yes…" she looks up to Adam and smiles lightly "A-Adam… thank you… f-for truly loving me… u-unlike others… I… L-Love you… too…" then closed her eyes as Alatheus landed the final blow, bringing his sword up and cutting through her neck, her body collapsing to the ground and despawning followed by the message: "Congratulations! You beat the first major boss; you have obtained a pair of 'Fishnet Stockings'. Please progress onto the next floor"

Alatheus turns to them, sheathing his sword "congrats, but…" he smirks, as two other players' teleport next to him; one had a large mace and a shield while the other had a minigun.

"I have a test for you kids, have a good one" and turns, leaving his companions behind

"Heh, our lucky day, hey Jonathon?" the first player chuckled

"Sure is Damian…" replies the second one, smiling

Jordan chuckled, looking smug "Heh, you wish!" then chucks a bag of confetti at them "Debuffs be upon you!"

Damian catches the bag and opens it, chuckling "Heh… was this meant to be bad…?" pulling out a couple of magazines with red bullets "Thanks for the flame rounds" he smiles, putting them into his minigun

"JORDAN what the hell!" Joel turned to him angrily, slapping him across the face.

"Heh…" Jordan chuckled nervously, as they all turned to the two members of the guild, preparing themselves…


	5. Chapter 5 - Old Friends, New Rivals!

**AN: Again, thanks for the reviews, they mean a lot**

 **Ross: This is beyond retarded**

 **Me: What are you-**

 **Adam: Long story**

 **Dan: you left the door open**

 **Me: Damn it! how?!**

 ***Flashback to Adam picklocking door***

 **Me: ADAM! hope you enjoy the chapter :D**

 **Adam: CRAP CRAP CRAP!**

The seven gamers sat around a table at 'Ye Olde Desert Pub' that was on floor 30, which was a scorching Desert with palm trees occasionally scattered around. They were sitting at a polished wooden table, which was clean unlike the table back at the Drunken Huntsman.

Dan sighed, raising the cup in his hand and taking a sip out of it before putting the cup back on the table "Is anyone else getting pissed off about whom these people from the 'Crystal Dragon Brotherhood' guild are?"

Ross shrugged "eh, they don't seem like a problem, last time we encountered them was on floor 25, when we killed the boss…" then he chuckles, glancing at Adam "and Adam's dream girl"

Adam shook his head "You Bastard…" which got a couple of chuckles from the others, then nods, resting his arm on the table "Dan's right though, who are these people? I mean… that Alatheus person… We've met him quite a bit already…"

*Flashback*

"My name, is Alatheus"

"You can trust me, on my honour as leader of the Crystal Dragon Brotherhood…"

"Thanks, but no thank you… I must advance floors only when the guild feels ready"

"Come at me, Bitch"

*end of Flashback*

Joel sighed "Well, we know something… he is not a joke"

Megan rolled her eyes "No shit Sherlock, he bitch-slapped you with his shield the first time we met…"

"Thanks for the compliment" Joel smugly replied, in typical Joel fashion

Tom rolled his eyes, giving a small sigh "honestly, you two are like a pair of five year olds on Overwatch…"

"What, jealous Tom?"

"That doesn't even make any sense!" Tom snapped back

Dan sighed, shaking his head "Ross, do remind me… why are we friends with this lot again?"

"Because we all like 'left 4 dead'?"

"Oh yea…" Dan face-palmed "god I hate my life sometimes…"

Adam nods "I think we all hate our lives…" then turns to Joel "Especially since someone spams Hadouken's…"

"Alright, 1 it's a valid strategy since it's how you're meant to use them, 2 it's my only ranged attack and 3, it works" Joel rebutted

Jordan sighed "Guys… can we just get along for a change…?"

Dan gave a mix between a cough and a laugh "Never"

There was a silence, before the seven of them exploded into laughter

"At any rate we should get ready to head out to the next boss" Tom stood up "Come on"

Dan raised an eyebrow "really Tom? Come on, just chill a little bit, after all… with the next boss we could all horribly die in a burning desert arena"

Ross shrugged in agreement "Ginger has a point there; we could all die on this floor and that'd be the end of us all"

Tom gave a sigh "fine, we'll stay for a bit longer and then head to the desert ruins"

Adam stands up "Heh, guess I'd better pay for drinks"

"Again?" Megan looks over suspiciously "Adam, where did all this gold come from…"

Adam chuckles "let's just say that playing skyrim helps you become a real pick-pocket…"

Jordan sighed, "This could go on for a bit…"

"Oi!" a townsman runs in, breathing heavily "W… We need help…!"

Ross looks over "what is it, what's going on?"

"S… Some persons' saying he'll… he'll kill us all!"

Joel stands up clenching his fist in front of him "Akuma…"

Dan face-palmed "Joel, this isn't street fighter…" then shook his head standing up "Come on… let's check it out then…" and with that the seven of them run out…

"Heh…" the figure stood there, arms crossed "pathetic, this town is truly pathetic…" then turns around and sees the seven of them "more players…? Heh, this should be interesting…" then pauses briefly seeing Joel "Ryu…"

Dan face-palmed again "this isn't street fighter…!"

Joel raised a hand, walking forward "This is my fight…let me handle it" then tightens his headband "bring it on Ken!"

"Hang on a minute Derrick…" a female walked forward, twirling a light brown staff made of a special type of wood in her hands "it appears it's not just you who knows someone here…"

Adam looked over at her "who?" then him and the others recognise the blond figure "No… it couldn't be… right?"

Dan made a low scowling noise as his blue eyes met hers "Emily… long time no see…"

Emily chuckled slightly "what do you know…? Two martial artists and us, an old couple…"

Dan stepped forward and stood beside Joel, drawing his swords "This ain't just your fight anymore Joel… now it's mine as well, and I fully intend to get payback for everything…"

Megan shook her head "Why are you here Emily?"

"I had a feeling that my EX would get this game, what with being obsessed with video games… and so I decided to get it as well… so we could settle this once and for all…"

Dan shook his head "What have I done…? You're the one who wanted to break up! And after all the fun memories and enjoyable times too…"

Emily's cocky smiled had briefly turned into a frown "true… but I'm blaming you anyway…" her frown had immediately returned to a smirk

"Joel, handle Derrick, this is between me and Emily…"

"You mean Ken right?" Joel turned to him, raising an eyebrow

"No, I mean Derrick, that's his name, you dumb fuck…" Dan looked back over, blue eyes narrowed in anger

"Fine, ruin the dream for me…"

Dan rolled his eyes, then dashed forward and held out both blades "Fine, let's settle this once and for all, Em!"

She chuckled, raising her staff and summoning a wolf "Ok, here we go then"

Joel chuckles, getting in a fighting stance "bring it on Ken!"

Derrick smiles, then runs at Joel "prepare to perish!" …

"ah!" Emily was launched into a wall, her wolf landing beside her and dying, exploding into little particles

"Hmph" Dan turned away, sheathing his blades "Em, I wouldn't bother… you know when it comes to games I'm better, and I always have been…"

She shook her head, getting out of the wall and looking at him, a scowl on her face "Fuck… you!" then walks over to Derrick "Come on…" and grabs his shoulder, looking at the seven of them "This isn't over…! We'll show you our true power next time!" then casts a teleporting spell as she and Derrick disappeared instantaneously

Joel chuckled "heh, take that Ken, that's what you get when you take orders from a girl!" then looks over and notices Dan who had gone quiet "You ok Dan?"

"Yea…" he glances away "it just… seemed strange seeing her again in the virtual world…" then turns away clenching his fists "but this isn't the last time… I know it…"

Ross walks over, shaking his head "you know there's plenty more fish in the ocean, right?"

"Heh, yea, I know… I just ain't found the right kind of fish yet, but someday…" then sees the boss room "Hey… race you guys to the boss!" and runs to the room

"Hey!" Tom followed after him "Dan! Don't! we need to be together otherwise you'll die before we get there!"

"Guys…" Adam chuckles, shaking his head and smiling "you know I'll win this race, so why even try?" and runs after them, followed by the other four…

In the distance however, a cloaked figure watched them heading towards the boss room, and pulls out a communicator "Boss… the seven of them have met Derrick and Emily, and it seems the two of them have personal connections to Dan and Joel…"

"…Good job Spectre, I knew you were the right guy for the job, as always…"

"Thank you sir, shall I proceed to follow them?"

"Yes, but when the time comes at floor fifty… I want you and a couple of other members from the guild to be there and be ready. I'll be there as well, after all… these seven seem like extremely good players, and it would be such a shame if their talents were wasted by foolishly dying to something like the Skull Weaver…"

"Understood sir, I'll continue to follow them for now and gather whatever information I can get…" Spectre turns off his communicator, then jumps off the roof of the hut he was standing on and lands on the sand, running after them and putting his helmet's visor down; pressing a button on the side, activating a tracking device and following the seven players "tracking system engaged, pursing targets immediately" before pressing a button on the side of his arm, following them as he turned invisible…


	6. Chapter 6 - Watery Hell

**AN: I'm so sorry regarding the late release of Chapter 6, some things croped up and I'd forgot about posting. As usual however Chapter 7 will be posted this friday**

 **Joel: Of course you'd forget us**

 **Me: Quit moaning Joel, sheesh, it's not like I forgot the story forever, now is it?**

 **Joel: That's not the point! I'm saying that- *Mouth is magically zipped shut by some unknown force***

 **Me: Ah... gotta love those silence spells... Anyway, enjoy! ;D**

Jordan and Tom opened the door at the top of the staircase meeting with a bright blast of light

Adam raised a hand, covering his eyes "where…?"

When they enter the floor and the sunlight dims, they see that they are on a small island in the middle of the ocean, with other islands around them in the distance

"Really, an Archipelago… great…" Megan shook her head, rolling her eyes slightly "do we have any method of transportation?"

"Hmm… if he can do it, we can too… We shall walk!" Ross walks to the edge of the island and walks into the water, but begins sinking "Crap… Help! I forgot this is all heavy armour!", and eventually drowns…

"Hey guys?" Jordan throws a bag of confetti onto the ground and makes a dinghy appear from nowhere "will this help?"

Ross reappears next to Dan, looking in the top corner of his HUD and noticing he had two lives remaining "Damn it Jordan!"

Jordan chuckles, making a sailor's hat appear from nowhere- "Let's set sail for… somewhere!"

They eventually (after Jordan kept getting lost and kept going in circles) reach the largest island in the centre of the floor. The island appeared to have a tribal town on it, and a staircase going down into the water behind it, which had a 'No entry!' sign hanging from a tree beside it.

"Nice town…" Dan looks around "I might move to this place, if… it was an actual set of islands in the real world…"

The dinghy lands on a beach, which appeared to have sand that was the colour of the sun, giving it a beautiful yellow shade and coupled with the lapping of the crystal-clear water on the shore, it gave the beach a beautiful appearance.

"I'm guessing we're staying here for a bit before we head to the boss?" Tom said as the seven of them looked around

Adam nods "yea, guess so… and besides…" he smiles, watching as two girls walked past "I could finally get some chemistry going on…"

Joel sighed, "Here we go…"

Ross rolled his eyes then looked towards the shops "I'm gonna go check out the armoury, anyone coming?"

Dan nods "Yea, I'll join ya, and besides…" he shrugs, shaking his head "this light armour is pretty ruined after the last boss fight…"

Ross nods back, then turns towards the shops and walks towards the armoury "let's go then"

Megan sighs, looking over and watching Adam fail horribly at flirting with one of the girls "oh, Adam…"

"Guys, hold it!" Jordan called out, causing Dan and Ross to stop, looking back at them "if we're going separate ways for now, where should we meet up?"

"Hmm…" Dan murmured slightly "what about in front of that staircase that goes downwards, the one with the 'no entry' sign in front? I mean, that's probably the boss room"

Tom nods "sure, meet up in about an hour?"

The others look among themselves and nod "sure"…

* * *

"Dan, is something bothering you?"

Dan shifted his gaze away from the light armour he had been looking at, and was now looking at Ross "no, why?"

"Trust me ginger, you may be good at hiding it with the others, but it's clear as day to me when something is wrong with you"

Dan sighed, his gaze going back towards the light armour "alright, maybe something is wrong…"

"It's Emily, isn't it?"

Dan had gone silent, but simply nodded, before speaking "yea… it's her…" he turns to Ross "I didn't think… that after everything we'd been through, all the memories we shared… she would blame me for this… what did I do?"

Ross chuckles "Dan, trust me… one day she'll realise what she's missing… I've known you for a lot of years now, and trust me… she's missing out"

Dan chuckles "heh, don't get mushy on me here…"

Ross draws his hammer and advances towards Daniel "what was that ginge?"

"Uh, n-nothing, heh heh…" Dan murmured nervously, sweat dropping

"Ginge, take that back…!"

"Ross, I didn't mean- Gah!" Dan slides under the hammer, before rolling to the side to dodge the swing afterwards "Ross…! Ahh!"

*ten minutes after Ross lost his temper, the entire armoury shop was ruined and so Dan and Ross had to paid a shared fine of 25,000 gold…*

The two boys walk out of the shop, as Dan chuckled nervously "Ehh…that could of gone worse…"

"True" Ross murmured, then looks over to a clock next to the weapon shop "crap, it's been an hour, come on, we have to go meet the others!"

"I noticed…" Dan rolled his eyes, then nods, as they both runs towards the staircase to meet the other five…

* * *

Meanwhile, Tom, Adam and Megan had gone to the local inn to try to get some information on the next boss…

"So babe, you know what you gotta do right?" Adam chuckled, raising an eyebrow "all you gotta do is press 'B' to blow"

The girl rolled her eyes, clearly not interested or caring

Adam smiled, putting an arm around her shoulder "wanna go for a drink sometime?"

"Adam, again? For fucks sake stop trying, please…" Megan shook her head "every time you try something goes horribly wrong…"

"Come on Megan, it's not hurting anyone" Adam smiled, before feeling something shatter against the back of his head as he was knocked on the ground

"Oi, get off me girl mate!" the guy snapped, walking towards him

Adam shook his head, standing up slowly and turning to him "You what mate? I'll kick yer fuckin head in!"

Tom sighed, shaking his head "Here we go…"

The person behind the counter stands up and starts cheering "FIGHT CLUB! FIGHT CLUB! FIGHT CLUB!"

Adam shakes his head "you broke the first rule of fight club: you mentioned it!"

"Come on then bloke, I'll bash ye fuckin head in, ya ass wank!"

At that poorly timed moment, Joel and Jordan walk in still arguing about which console is better: Xbox, PlayStation or Nerve Gear

"I'm telling ya, Xbox is better!"

"Nah, PlayStation is better, after all we get exclusives"

"WE GET THE SAME DAMNED THINGS!" As always, Joel was trying to start something while Jordan tries to explain Joel's retardedness briefly.

"Hi guys, you're just in time for the fun" Adam smiled, and then turned back to the Team Skullz member "bring it on then!"

And with that, the next half an hour was wasted throwing punches and insults…

* * *

The seven players walked into the large room, which had waterfalls on either side, which left a rainbow colour on the floor where the sun shone through the walls of water.

Tom smiles slightly as they all looked around in awe "wow… this entire floor seems beautiful, even the boss room…"

"Seems like a beautiful place for a couple to visit on holiday" Dan smiled slightly, ignoring the glare from Tom and the stifled laughter from Megan, before looking around and noticed the room was empty

Joel gets into a defensive stance "Yea… something's off here, and I ain't liking it…"

Megan unholstered her revolvers, looking around "we don't even know if the boss has spawned yet…"

A faint fluttering sound, like wings, was barely heard

Ross got his hammer out, looking around "hmm… best get ready, after all, it could be anything…

Jordan glanced over his shoulder and saw it… the boss, which was a small moth "uhh… guys? Is anyone else seeing this?"

The other six gamers look at each other before turning to face Jordan and see the moth

Dan walked forward; looking at it "doesn't seem like a boss"

The moth speeds forward suddenly, head-butting Dan and launching him through the back wall, killing him instantly as he smashed through the concrete

"WHAT!" The other six turn to the moth as Dan reappeared beside Ross, looking at his HUD and seeing he only had two lives left

The seven of them watch as writing appeared beside it saying 'The Moth' and it only came up with a small, green square

"It… only has one health?" Tom raised an eyebrow, as the seven looked among themselves

"Come on…" Adam shook his head, "All we need to do is hit it once, and we win!"

"That's always easier said than done…" Tom murmured, then looked over at Joel who chuckled

"Alright, I should be able to hit it easily!" Joel smirked and ran forward, intending to punch the small thing, however it dodged nearly instantaneously

"What?" Joel looks around angrily "GAH! I'm going to kill this little bastard!"

* * *

Finally, after twenty long, agonising minutes of trying to hit the moth…

"DAMN this little bastard!" Joel went to punch the moth, which dodged: however, it flew straight into Ross' hammer, splatting against it

"Well…" Adam wiped some sweat from his brow "that… took longer than it should of…"

"Oh well…" Megan chuckled tiredly, holstering her now empty guns "least we can finally leave this place… but I'll have to buy ammo…"

"Guys" Ross walked over; picking up the one item it dropped "it dropped a pet, which was a moth… MY PET!"

Dan simply chuckled nervously "sure big guy, come on… let's go, let's just get going to the next Inn…"

* * *

Elsewhere, on another level entirely…

"Damn… Alatheus is gonna kick my ass once he hears about this failure…" Damian leant against the wall, holding the side of his head before getting out a wrap and bandaging the wound up, then stood up, pushing the doors open "Sir, I have returned"

"Damian…" Alatheus turned, a small smile on his face "how was it?" then noticed it was just him "and where, is Jonathon?

"A…About that, Sir… we fought those kids… they killed Jonathon and I barely escaped with one life…"

Alatheus' small smile vanished immediately, replaced with a blank expression "you failed?" he steps forward "I give you some of the best equipment this guild has… and you both still lose?"

"S-Sir… you said it yourself… They're no regular kids…"

"Damian…" Alatheus walks forward, he didn't look happy, yet at the same didn't seem angry at all. He draws his sword slowly as he made his way towards Damian "You've failed me again… this is the third time you failed me…"

"S-Sir!" Damian steps backwards slowly, raising his hands "I promise I'll win next time! J-Just give me more people and more equipment and I can-" he pauses suddenly, aware Alatheus was right in front of him, holding his blade to Damian's neck

"You wanted to die with your pride and honour intact, right Damian?"

"Y-Yes Sir, but…"

"No buts about it, Damian…" and brings his sword up, beheading Damian and watching his body fall to the ground with a splat, blood pouring from his neck as his head rolled slightly "there is no way more honourable than dying to the leader of the Crystal Dragon Brotherhood…"

Alatheus turns away, sheathing his sword "yet another player that has died in both worlds…" he smiles slightly "and yet another death caused by me…" he smiles, then turns away and walks towards the window "it's amazing how many people want to join, and even more amazing how few of them actually last longer than two days…"

Alatheus turns, and walks towards the door, clicking his fingers "Ember!"

"You called sir?" The girl named Ember walked in; she was wearing light blue heavy armour with the guild's emblem on one shoulder pad and her rank (Private) on the other, her blond hair tied up in a ponytail and her helm underneath one of her arms

"Yes, my dear… Please be so kind as if to clean up Damian's body"

"Understood Sir!" she opened up her menu and clicked on the 'Dispose Corpse' option, which put Damian into a dark blue body bag, before dragging him away

Alatheus turns away walking down the corridor and opens his inventory, getting out the communicator "get me Spectre on the line, now"


	7. Chapter 7 - Tales of Dread

**AN: Hello guys and girls! Chapter seven is here and the heat is cranked up to over 1000 for our heroes!**

 **Megan: Great, more hell in a nutshell**

 **Me: It ain't that bad**

 **Megan: I swear to fucking god-**

 **Dan: *Gasp!* Mind your fucking language! don't say that about someone who doesn't exist!**

 **Me: ANYWAYYY... Due to it being half term over in the good ol' (always pissing with rain) UK, I won't be able to post any new contecn until after the week off, and with that... Later, and I hope you enjoy! :D**

 **Megan and Dan: *arguing in background***

The seven players glanced around the room, watching the boss exploded into little blue particles and the familiar text of 'Congratulations! You've been beaten the Boss!' showed up followed by the Boss' drop, which was a set of 'Earrings of Health' that added 280Hp to a players current health.

"Well…" Megan murmured, holstering her original one and holding up the other one that she had brought earlier, making sure there was no left over ammo in the cartridge "That could of gone worse, although considering Joel nearly died, AGAIN…"

"Anyway" Tom shrugged, as the seven of them walked towards the stairs "Let's go, time's a-wasting"

Jordan nods, as the seven of them walked forward, Joel and Dan had opened the large doors as they left floor 49, entering floor 50

"Ugh…" Megan shuddered from the sudden chill "Yeesh… colder than it looks…"

Ross shrugs "ain't that cold, I mean… in Russia, you don't get cold, the cold gets you"

Tom face-palmed, as always annoyed at the lack of logic in this game, and the story overall, "that didn't even make sense…!"

Dan rolled his eyes as the seven players walked towards the nearest town. The town looked like it had been abandoned for years, the wooden buildings had rotted away to nearly nothing and the stonewalls that had been around it which was meant protect the town, had become covered in moss and crumbling.

They looked over to the tavern, and there was nothing but a faint light coming through the dirty, cracked glass beside a sign that hung that read 'The Eclipse Inn'

"Well, least there is something here" Joel muttered, stretching "come on, we're all tired and cranky from our recent lack of sleep, so let's get rooms for the night"

Jordan nods "sure, that could work, and it'll let us plan out for the next boss as well, which is always helpful"

Megan pushed the door openly slowly, which creaked even with the slightest touch and walked in. The inside of the building seemed cold, only a small lantern hanging from beside the counter, although the flame was low and the tables and chairs were a disgusting dark brown from all the years of rot, as if they were barely standing.

"Hello!" Dan called out as they looked around "is anyone here?"

"Oi! What you kids doing here at this time of night!"

They all turned, spooked by the sudden voice and see that it is a man of about 45, he had a long white beard and one eye was scarred shut with his other eye being pale green in colour. He shuffled towards them, raising his eyebrow "What you lot doing here?" it was obvious from his accent that he was Scottish.

"Whoa, we only want rooms for the night" Joel sweat-dropped, glancing at the others before raising his hands in defeat

"Sorry, we're closed" The man had started pushing them out, aggression visible on his face "you'll have to come again in the mornin'" although he stopped suddenly and his face fell from anger to immediate fear, as he heard a noise from outside that was nearby, and getting ever closer "N-No…! They're on their way…! Damn it all, why now?"

"Who?" Ross asked, smirking "We can handle them"

"No you can't…! Quick, just get in here!" and pulled them back in quickly before going to the door and sealing it shut

"Hey! What's going on, tell us!" Joel snapped, walking forward towards the man

He shook his head, raising a finger to his lips "Ssh!"

Everything had gone eerily silent, before a low, human-like moan is heard outside

"Hmm?" The seven players looked among themselves confused, then turned to the inn keeper

"What's going on?" Megan whispered, the seven of them wanted answers now

The old man sighs slightly, shaking his head "fine…" he whispered, "follow me upstairs, they won't hear us due to their limited senses"

Adam looked around the room, the windows had been barricaded shut and there was a low burning flame in the corner of the room "so what's going on…?"

The man shakes his head "guess I should introduce myself…the name's Magnus"

"Magnus" Tom asked, nodding slightly before repeating Adam's question "What's going on?"

Magnus sighed, "It's a long story kids, but here I go…" he took a sip from the glass of water beside him before turning back to the seven players "the thing outside is what we call a 'Patroller'…"

"A patroller?" Dan raised an eyebrow in confusion "what's this about? Why are they patrolling in the first place, has something happened?"

"They patrol for the boss of this floor, the Skull Weaver…" Magnus shook his head sadly

Adam clicks his fingers "oh yea, this is floor 50… meaning that this would be the second major boss of the game"

Magnus nods "you have it sonny, the Skull Weaver is no joke… that's why this town is empty apart from a survivor or two"

"So… What does this thing do…? The 'Skull Weaver' I mean" Megan asked curiously, head tilted slightly in wonder

"Well..." Magnus began "there's also an arena on this floor, so the Patroller's take anyone or anything they find to the arena, where players and other monsters fight. You can't die in the arena, but if you're defeated you're left unconscious, and so the Patroller's take you to the catacombs to serve you to the Skull Weaver…"

Jordan raised an eyebrow curiously "'Serve you'? You mean that they…"

Magnus nods, a sad look in his eyes as if he had seen it all before "Yep, it eats you alive"

Joel chuckled, ignoring the death sentence "an arena…? That sounds amazing, let's go!"

Magnus shook his head "you don't want to, trust me… I barely escaped, and that's why I'm in the state that I am…"

Tom nods, but before he could say anything a crash is heard downstairs

Magnus' eyes widened and he stands up "N-No! They've managed to get in!"

Dan stands up, drawing his swords "come on then! Let's take the fight to them!"

Megan nods, standing as well and unholstering her revolvers.

Magnus huffs slightly, going over to a closet and pulling out a large broadsword "fine… if I'm going to perish… I'm taking some of those bastards down with me!"

Tom raises an eyebrow, then shook his head "No… I'm not even gonna ask… Let's go!"

The eight of them head downstairs and look into the dining room "Whoa…"

There were two human-like beings shuffling around the room. One had what looked like bone armour on its left shoulder and right knee that looked like it was holding it together, and the other one had the bone armour on its lower jaw and neck. They were in a horrible state of decay, with parts of flesh hanging from their bodies. One patroller had the side of its head caved in and part of its spine sticking out, giving it a limp as it moved while the other may as well been blind, due to the amount of blood pouring from its eyeballs

"Holy shit…" Joel murmured, then shook his head "Let's go!" he dashes forward, intending to punch one of them

The one with the great sword turned and saw Joel "KcaTTa!"

Joel chuckled, then realised it had swung, the great sword heading directly for his head "Woah!" he slid under it, standing behind the Patroller and getting low, sweeping his leg around and tripping it up

"Behind you!" Megan yelled, pointing her revolvers at the one with the knife who had attempted to stab Joel, repeatedly shooting it in the head

"Gii…Guhh…AH!" the patroller with the knife stepped backwards, raising its arm weakly for protection, although it knew its arm wouldn't protect it from the bullets as it stumbled backwards further, blood gushing from the holes in its arm

"Llaf kAcb!" the first patroller made a low groaning noise as it stumbled through the ruined door frame, followed by the second one dragging its great sword weakly as it limped away

"Eh heh…" Magnus chuckled weakly, slipping slightly and leaning on his broadsword "gotta admit… you kids have skill… you might be able to beat this thing…"


	8. Chapter 8 - The Arena Part 1

**AN: AN: Again, sorry about the delay regarding chapter 8, but I should hopefully be on track again, so, I hope you enjoy 'The Arena, part 1'**

 **Ross: there's always a damned haunted floor...** **Dan: ...** **Ross: ginge...?** **Dan: ...SPOOKY SCARY SKELETONS :D** **Ross: *sigh***

* * *

"Thanks" Tom smiled, shaking hands with Magnus "and don't worry, we'll put a stop to this"  
Magnus nods, a small smile on his face "don't worry bout it kid, you'll always be welcome here if need be"  
"Thanks…" Tom turned away and faced the others "Let's go… to the arena!"  
Megan shrugs "you sure about this?" She shakes her head "this might not be the best idea without a bit more training…"  
"Hey! Guys, what's up?" yelled a voice, as the seven gamers sighed  
Tom turned and saw who it was "oh no…"  
"HEEEY!" George smiled, trying to act cool "SUP GUYS?"  
Dan face-palmed "Damn it George… that's my line!"  
"Shut up ginger!"  
Dan walked forward, drawing his blades "threatening me? You fat bastard! Do you really think that's smart when I'm levels higher than you?"  
Morgan walks over "Guys! Hello!" and runs over, then turns to Ross "So how's world of tanks going on?"  
Ross huffed, shaking his head and face-palmed "fucking hell Morg…"  
Adam rolled his eyes "and this is where the rivalries begin…"  
Luke shrugs "eh…"  
"So…" George scoffed "we're on our way to prove our guild is the best in the world!"  
Tom shook his head, shrugging "trust me, you'll have to do better than that if you want to be the best in the game"  
"At least we have a guild" George replied cockily, trying to be cool and better than everyone else like normal  
"We don't need one" Joel chuckled "we're already amazing enough"  
"Oh yeah?" George snapped in reply, "you wanna one v one me mate? Bring it! I'll slay you all in the arena!"  
Dan chuckled, tilting his head to the side slightly "you're heading to the arena…? This should be fun…!"  
Morgan smiles "alright, I guess we'll see each other there"  
Adam smiles "sure, this should be fun!"

* * *

The seven of them entered through the large, metal gates that entered into the arena.  
"Wow…" Megan looked around "this place is pretty nice for an arena where players have been knocked out cold and then dragged to a giant monster that takes their bones for armour and intestines for webbing…"  
The arena did seem nice. There were large, purple banners hanging from the ceiling that had a picture of a blue spider surrounded by bones on them, and the columns were made of a green ore that gave them a beautiful, polished look. A couple of bone piles were scattered around the corners of the room that had rusted gates, leading into the fight area itself.  
"Honestly… I'm amazed, how would the 'Puffle' guild reach this floor in the first place…?" Dan shrugged, "I mean… they don't seem like the best fighters… especially considering one is a thief, one is a warrior and one is a necromancer…"  
"Eh" Joel shrugged "pure luck, I guess…"  
"More luck than you have playing street fighter and trying to get a flawless match against the hardest difficulty…" Ross chuckled  
"Hey!" Joel snapped, "I'll slap you!"  
"You can try…"  
"Can we not try and kill each other before we go in the arena?" Jordan murmured, sweat dropping…  
Tom nods "true, we can kill ourselves afterwards…"  
"Well, if it isn't our favourite band of wanna-be heroes…" A voice chuckled, as Derrick approached from the shadows "Ryu…"  
Joel growled slightly "you again… bring any help this time round?"  
"Well, it's not just me and the girl, I'll say that much…"  
Dan's eyes widened, although it was not known because of fear or shock, "she's here too…?"  
"Not just me Dan…" Emily chuckled, coming from the shadows followed by four others "but a couple of friends too…" she smiled, raising a hand "I would like to introduce you all to the rest of Alpha Squad…"  
Adam noticed a familiar face, but shook his head "No…! Not this time shecklestein!"  
"Adam… you still owe me sheckles…"  
"You're the swordsman of the group?" a man of about 30-ish looked at Tom "Bet you couldn't hit a slime…"  
Tom chuckled "and I thought I was cancer…"  
The man chuckles "I can show you true fear, if you want…"  
Emily shakes her head, raising a hand "not yet Alex, wait until the arena…"  
The girl standing next to Alex giggled, "So this is the group of friends we've been sent to deal with?" she smiles, pulling out her sniper rifle and spinning it "should be fun to put a couple of bullets in their heads"  
A masked stranger, slightly taller than Ross stood beside the girl, his blade dragging across the ground and a permanent frown etched into his mask "…"  
"Please could the first match, consisting of the Puffle guild and the Gamers please enter through the gates and enter the main arena," a voice said over the loudspeaker.  
"The 'Gamers'?" Derrick scoffed "pathetic, I knew you were all weak, but still…"  
"Heh, wait until we kick your asses" Joel smirked "alright, come on guys, let's show them how it's done!" and with that the six of them watch as the large metal gates open, and walk through them going to the arena…

* * *

"Oof!" George yelped landing on his back "ughh…" he stands up, shaking his head then holds his knife out "come on!" then turns to Luke and Morgan "Get up! Get up, get up, Get up!"  
Morgan shook his head, standing up slowly "hhrg… George… just give up… we can't win…"  
Luke nods, resting on his staff due to exhaustion "Morgan's right for once…"  
George sweat drops, then turns to the other three players lying on the floor to the right of him "Get up! Get up!" although the other three players were already knocked out…  
George turned to the six of them, a worried expression on his face "hrgg…"  
Joel grinned "give it up, six on three is just unfair! We have won! Surrender already!"  
"NEVER!" George yelled, as always he would not have it. He ran at Tom, intending to strike him with his knife "DIE!"  
Tom smiled, raising his shield to easily parry the blow, then swiped upwards with his sword which knocked George's knife out of his hands  
George jumped back, now weapon less "hhrgm…"  
Ross chuckles, walking towards him with his hammer and smiling manically  
George gulped, stepping backwards "I… I can still win!"  
To this, both Morgan and Luke face palmed  
"And the winners are… The Gamers!"  
George shook his head in disbelief "What! But I'm still alive!"  
"Tough luck, the Puffle guild have been crap since the beginning"  
"No fair!" George stormed out of the arena in tears, quickly followed by Luke and Morgan  
"Who else thinks that this was easy?" Dan smiled, shrugging  
"Me" everyone else replied, because… you readers know…it was…just, stupidly easy…  
"Come on!" Adam smiled "we celebrate!"  
"Although we have another match in less than 10 minutes?" Tom raised an eyebrow  
"Come on Tom" Adam smiled "Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils after a short while"  
"What's that meant to mean?" Joel raised an eyebrow, looking over at Adam with annoyance in his eyes "and when did you start using stuff like that?"  
Ross sighed; face palming "can we just go please…?"

* * *

"Well…" Derrick looked over at them "this could be interesting, ey?"  
Alex sighed, shrugging "this couldn't be a bigger waste of time"  
The girl giggled, spinning her sniper rifle "Come on guys, it'll be fun to put bullets in their heads and blades up their-"  
Emily sighed, glancing over to her "Vince, that's enough, save it for later…"  
"Aww… don't be a spoilt sport Em, I'll put a boyfriend through your bullet" She smiled, eyes gleaming in insanity  
"I think you mean the other way round…?" Shecklestein raised an eyebrow, then face palmed  
"Nope" Vince smiled "I meant what I said"  
Derrick sighed, "Why did we hire a maniac to be our sniper?"  
"Because she was the best for the job?" Emily sighed, clearly giving up in using real world logic in a game where logic did not exist  
"Aww, thanks guys, you really believe in me!" Vince smiled, her brown eyes gleaming mischievously as she stopped spinning her sniper, resting it across her legs  
Shecklestein raised an eyebrow in curiosity "I really worry about you sometimes Vince…"  
"But you shouldn't" she smiled insanely, which almost immediately turned into a frown "but how much longer…? I hate waiting!" she crossed her arms, pouting  
"Not Long" Mason glanced down at her, then went back to sharpening his blade  
"Hmph!" Vince looked away with her arms crossed; she was in one of her huffs…  
Derrick rolled his eyes, shrugging "Whatever…"  
"Please could the Slayers and the Gamers enter the arena and get ready for the final match please?"  
"There we go…" Derrick smiles, then turns to Vince "Happy now Kid, knowing that you can go and kill all of them?" She giggles, jumping up and grabbing her sniper "yep, let's go murder them!" She giggled happily, swinging her sniper over and shoulder and putting it on her back, clapping with glee "This will be fun! Let's kill them ALL!"


	9. Chapter 9 - The Arena Part 2

**AN: Hello one and all! This is part 2 of 'The Arena' and as always, I've tried SOOO hard (Sarcasm is literally dripping from voice at this point) to keep the story up to date and stuff, so yea... hope you enjoy-**

 **Vince: HOLD IT!**

 **Me: Um... ok? what's the problem?**

 **Vince: *points at me* You, now get out**

 **Me: No *gets thrown out***

 **Vince: Ok, he hopes you enjoy and I'll see you next time... BYE BYE!**

Vince giggled insanely, looking between her teammates and the six players "Ooh! This should be fun, come on, come on, come on!"

"Hang on there little un" Derrick placed a hand on her shoulder "Just calm down and concentrate"

"Aww… Fine" She huffed, then picked up a cartridge, loading her sniper

Tom drew his sword and shield, a small smile on his face "Finally, a fun fight!"

Joel smirked, facing Derrick "Ken… I hope you ready!"

Derrick smirked back, getting into a defensive stance "Heh, bring it!"

"And let the fight…" the person over the loudspeaker paused, allowing the suspense to build, before… "Begin!"

"I'll go first," Megan murmured, unholstering her revolvers and loading them both. She smiles slightly "to a good fight"

"Yes…" Vince smiled, raising her rifle "to a good fight…!" she smirked insanely, pulling the trigger and firing the bullet

"Woah!" Megan rolled forward, dodging the first bullet and raising her pistols, firing in return

Vince smiled while rolling backwards to avoid the bullets, then vanished-

"Where?" Megan looked up and noticing Vince looking directly down at her, firing the sniper again

Megan jumped backwards, avoiding being landed on by the smaller girl "How are you so quick?"

"Simple!" Vince vanished again, reappearing in front of Megan and punching her, "I'm the smallest, and therefore quickest!"

Megan stumbled backwards, holding her face and trying to stop the bleeding from her broken nose as she dropped her guns

Vince giggled, aiming her sniper directly at Megan's face "Bye-Bye!"

Megan removed her hands, and saw the barrel of the sniper aimed directly at her face "No!" she ran forward, sliding under the gun and punching the small girl in the stomach, causing her to stumble backwards

"Ehehe… EHAHAHA!" Vince had burst into laughter; she raised a hand and wiped away blood from her mouth "What a thrill! I'm enjoying this so much!"

"You're insane!" Megan yelled, and then wiped the blood away from her nose and dashes forward, intending to punch the smaller girl again although Vince smiles, then vanishes again-

Megan turned around in a circle; sweat dropping _where…?_ She thought to herself, shaking her head _where could the little sod be…?_

"Here" Vince smiled, reappearing behind Megan and elbowing her in the neck, sending Megan tumbling forward

"Ghh!" Megan stumbles forward, falling to her knees "Ugh… Uhh…"

Vince smiled, walking towards Megan and wiping blood from her mouth, laughing slightly "I win…"

"I… ain't done… yet…!" Megan swept her leg around, catching the back of Vince's legs and causing her to fall to the ground "Heh…" she stood up and wiped the blood from her face

Vince sat up; wiping blood from her mouth "Hih… you wouldn't hurt me… right…?" there was a brief, innocent look in her brown eyes

Megan turned, walking over to one of her guns and picking it up "No, I wouldn't hurt you…" She turns and puts a bullet through Vince's side "But I would shoot you"

Vince should have been screaming, but instead started laughing insanely "The pain feels amazing! Ahaha… HAHAHAHA!" Vince had started laughing more and more as she slowly forced herself to stand, leaning on her sniper rifle for support "You've won this Megan, but next time… next time will be different! Hehe… HAHAHAHA!" She limped back to her teammates, still giggling insanely

"A-Alright… I won…" Megan smiled slightly, then winced again holding her nose as she headed back to the others

"Alright" Tom smiled gently hugging her "Come on, let's go get you a medic. Ross, you're up"

He nods, walking into the arena as Mason approached from the other side "to a good match!"

"Hhrg… HHRG!" Mason groaned, trying to break the leather jacket that bound him

Ross chuckles slightly "This should be fun… you can barely move your arms, barely move yourself…" he sweatdrops, noticing that the leather had begun to stretch "Uhh… you ok there buddy?"

"HHAARGHH!" The tight leather jacket that he had been wearing exploded off him, revealing what he had underneath; he was extremely muscular, as if he looked like the kind of person who had taken excessive amounts of steroids although it was all pure muscle

From their side of the arena, a deep purr escaped from Vince "Ooh, never realised he was such a looker"

Emily glanced at the sniper, raising an eyebrow "seriously? You call that attractive?" then smiled glancing at Dan "Not all boys have muscles, but they're still cute…" she paused suddenly realising what she said, then looked away blushing heavily

Vince looked up at the taller girl with a smile on her face "what's that meant to mean, hmm?"

Ross stepped back slightly, raising his hammer and shield "Let's go then"

Mason roared, raising a hand to his face and tearing off the mask to reveal what was underneath: his left eye was a light grey, while the other one was dark grey and he had a scar going down from below his right eye that went down to his chin, his nose seemed like it had been broken in multiple places but didn't care and he had hair that was dirty blonde in colour

Vince giggled, purring again and clapping "He's my type of guy!"

Derrick looked over at his teammate "you sure are a strange un kid…"

Vince giggled again "why thank you! I take honour and pride in my insanity; it's allowed me to kill so many players without ever regretting it once"

"HHAARGHH!" Mason took the machete in his right hand and slammed it into the ground blade first, so that it was stuck in the ground; it seemed he was going to fight with his bare hands

Ross smirked "bring it!" and he ran at Mason, using the momentum gained to swing his hammer sideways, trying to strike Mason on the head

Mason slid under the hammer with ease, however and countered with his own attack, Upper-cutting and sending Ross into the air

"Oof!" he hit the ground hard, and rolled a couple of times. He forced himself up, wiping blood from his mouth "for a big guy… you're pretty quick…"

"R… O… S… S!" Mason roared, then vanished

"Ack! Where?" Ross looked around rapidly, surprised at how quickly the large guy had disappeared

Ross turned quickly, as Mason appeared behind him "Wha-" Ross raised his shield quickly, intending to block the incoming blow but it was ineffective-

"H-How…?" he watched as Mason's hand came bursting through the shield and grabbed him by the throat "G-Gah!"

Mason roared, picking Ross up by the throat, slowly crushing the paladin's windpipe before punching the paladin a couple of times in the stomach

"Hrrg… Gah!..." Ross barely let out his pained yells, shutting his eyes in pain as his stomach was punched, his throat still being crushed

Mason drops Ross to the ground, then raises a foot and stamps on Ross' chest, crushing it slowly

It was clear now from the pained yells that Ross was in serious pain, which was the first time this had actually happened outside of a boss room

"Yea! Go Mason! CRUSH HIS HEART!" Vince was practically screaming in delight by now as she clapped her hands, clearly enjoying the show.

The other four members of Alpha Squad turned to her, a mix of emotions visible in all their eyes.

"What?" Vince giggled; looking at them all "Can't a girl enjoy a blood bath now and then?" she smiled gently, tilting her head to the side slightly in a cute fashion

"Come on Ross!" Dan yelled, "If I know someone who could endure worse stuff than this, it would be you!"

"Ross, do a shoryuken and get out from under him!" although Joel's idea of trying to use street fighter as a tactic was stupid, but at least it was encouragement…

Ross managed a small smile, raising a knee and striking Mason in the groin, then swung a leg around and managed to trip Mason

Mason stumbled backwards, but gathered himself together quickly

Ross chuckled weakly; wiping blood from his mouth "alright then…" he chuckled, throwing his hammer and shield away from him, turning to Mason with his hands curling into fists "if it's a hand-to-hand you want… I'll give you one…"

"R… O… S… S!" Mason roared again then ran at him, intending to make the first hit strike hard

Ross smirked slightly, rolling underneath Mason's fist and punching him in the stomach

Mason looked down at him unfazed, before elbowing Ross in the face and using the chance to grab his legs

Ross had stumbled back from taking the elbow to the face, before he felt hands wrap around his legs "What?"

Mason roared, and started spinning while holding to Ross' legs so that he spun as well, and after picking up speed he let go, throwing Ross into a wall

"Gah!" Ross hit the wall and went halfway through it, kicking up a large cloud of dust as he collided with the wall

Everyone in the arena had gone silent as the dust cloud settled… had Ross survived? Would he even be able to stand, or did Mason have the first Kill in the arena?

"U… U… Ugh…" Ross got up slowly; he was barely able to stand

"And that is that Folks: The Winner is Mason!" the announcer's voice boomed through the speakers, and there was a mixed reaction in the crowd, with some cheering and some booing

Vince giggled insanely, clapping "you did it Mason!"

Ross limped over to his shield and hammer, picking them up before making his way back to the others "H… He was stupidly strong… I… had no chance… and yet I thought…"

Tom shook his head "you had the best chance out of all of us, you're the only one on the team who could come close to his physical strength"

Ross smiled weakly, then looked over to the other side of the arena and saw Mason staring at him "I'll get my revenge… trust me..."

And that was how it continued, a win to a loss: Dan had defeated Emily, Joel lost to Derrick and Tom took down Alex, now it was just down to Adam and Shecklestein to see whether the Gamers of the Slayers won…

"How about this?" Shecklestein lunged forward, swinging his knife in an arc; he was aiming at least to slice Adam's stomach.

Adam smirked, rolling backwards to dodge, then lunged himself and managed to catch Shecklestein in the arm.

"Ghh!" Shecklestein stumbled backwards, holding his arm tightly as blood oozed from the wound, showing that the Bloodloss effect on Adam's knife was taking place "D… Damn you! I USED THAT ARM TO COUNT MY SHECKLES!" He sped forward, slashing rapidly.

Adam smiled, and continued to either roll or slide out of the way until Shecklestein eventually tired himself out.

"Uh… *huff* Da… *puff* damn you Adam…" he collapsed to one knee tiredly, looking up at Adam.

Adam smiled, then appears in front of Shecklestein, stabbing him in the kidney then kicks him away.

"And that's the final match!" the announcer called "Adam is the winner… and that means that the Gamers have won the tournament!"

There were roars of cheer and laughter from the audience as the six looked among themselves happily.

"Alright" Chuckled Dan "we did it! Come on, let's go tell Jordan!" and with that, the six ran out to find their friend who was waiting…

"Jordan!" Megan chuckled as they ran over to them "We won!"

"Nice" Jordan smiled, then remembered "oh yea… guys, look who's here" and motions to the merchant next to him.

"Guys, what's up?" The merchant smiled.

"Hayden?!" Joel yelped, looking from Jordan and the others, then back to Hayden "Wha- How- WHY?! You said you didn't want to be in this story in the first place!"

"I managed to convince Dan to add me to the roster of characters, and I'm actually quite an important character too"

Joel looked at Daniel, slightly annoyed "Dan…"

Dan shrugged, genuinely confused "What story?" he raised an eyebrow "Joel, you sure Derrick didn't give you brain problems? Although that would be nothing new…"

"Anyway…" Hayden smiled "I heard you guys were in this game, and thought I would join, just to piss off Joel"

Ross chuckled "definitely nothing new… so what do you sell?"

"You know, Anime trinkets… and stuff…"

Tom walks over, and activates the merchant menu while talking to Hayden "Headbands… weapons… Jewellery… not bad, and every one of these is an anime or game reference?"

Hayden nods "yep, why don't you buy something while I'm here?"

Tom shook his head "Nah, I think we're all…" he slows down, glancing up and noticing the gun barrel to his forehead "fine… sure, we'll buy stuff"

Hayden smiles, holstering the weapon "good, now, take your pick"

15 minutes pass, and the shopping was done… even though Dan was the only one to actually buy anything from Hayden…

"Come on Hayden! Lower that price, please? 100,000 gold seems like way-too much for Ryu's headband" Joel shook his head quickly as he tried to barter with Hayden, although failed quickly

"No Joel, quit sulking like a kid: either buy it or leave it" Hayden raised an eyebrow and smirked "or you could try and steal it, which would result in a nearly-instant death for you"

"*sigh* fine… I'll leave it, for now…" Joel shook his head again "but just remember I'll always be trying to get it off you, and you know that!"

"I know…" Hayden chuckled, before thinking to himself _and that is why every time we meet I will raise the price, just to make life horrible and depressing for you…_

Dan smiled, equipping his new scouter in his accessory slot and looking at his teammates "Holy shit… this actually shows power levels!"

Joel raised an eyebrow "go on then, what's my level and amount of health?"

"Better" Dan smirked, pressing the side of the scouter then looking at Joel and reading out what he saw: "Joel, Level 58, Class type: Monk, Exp needed until next level is 1820, amount of health is 22,000Hp, next ability to unlock: Burst mode"

"Burst mode? Probably Evil Ryu" Joel chuckled "Ok, I have to admit… that Scouter's pretty cool… I wonder if it works on enemies too…"

Dan shrugged, then turned to a nearby patroller that was one of the arena guards "Enemy name: Patroller, Class: Guardian, Health: 15,000" Dan raised an eyebrow "This is fucking amazing! I can see I'm gonna have a lot of fun reading power levels with this thing…"

Ross raised an eyebrow "A scouter that actually works? That seems so impossible, but… here we are"

Dan nods "Yea, this should make fights easier"

"And-" Hayden began, as they all turned to him "like every good merchant, I'll have more in stock every time we speak"

"Really? Cool" Megan smiled "that could be helpful"

Adam rolled his eyes, a small smile on his face "anyway… come on, let's head to the inn for now, and get some rest before we go fight the impossible thing that is the Skull Weaver…" and with that the seven of them head off back towards the abandoned town, hoping Magnus was still willing to take them in for the night…

He watched them from behind a nearby column, scanning them through his visor before activating his communicator "Sir, I have location on them"

"And, they are?"

"On their way to the catacombs now…"

"Good, meet me there later with Alpha Squad, but keep yourself hidden"

"Under, Sir, shall I engage the boss with you?"

"No Need, Spectre, we'll handle ourselves…" and turns his communicator off, before slipping into the darkness and following them as the seven players head back to the Eclipse Inn…


	10. Chapter 10 - Dark Histories

**AN: Hello one and all! We've finally reached an important number, 10 chapters! :D I'm truly amazed at this, and never thought I would have got this far, but I did…**

 **Alatheus: *raises eyebrow* and what about the rest of us? This story is only popular because of us**

 **Me: But I'm the author, the one who made you all**

 **Megan: That's not the point *sweatdrops***

 **Me: What's the point then?**

 **Derrick: Let's kick his ass!**

 **Everyone else: Yeah!**

 **Me: Help… 0_0' anyway, I hope you enjoy the- *dodges a couple of bullets and a sword swing* -Chapter… AHHHHH! *Runs out, followed by everyone else***

* * *

"These catacombs are really fucking annoying…" Derrick huffed, crossing his arms as the six of them walked down the dark hall, bones littered about here and there

"Come on Derrick" Vince giggled, looking down from Mason's shoulder "They're not that bad, now are they?"  
"You don't have to walk because you're a lazy bitch…" Derrick snapped back, annoyed with the girl's foolishness and how she acted so childish.  
"Get over it Derrick, you stupid oaf…" Vince glared at him; her normally innocent brown eyes showing anger behind them, as if she was sick and tired of holding said anger back.  
Emily turned to them, hands on her hips in annoyance "quit it you two!" she snapped, the Will-o-Wisp floating beside her head fluttering back and forth slightly, as if watching the argument unfold.  
"Well tell Miss Pampered over there that-" Derrick growled, although he was quickly interrupted by Vince.  
"Miss Pampered? MISS PAMPERED?! Why you…!" Vince jumped from Mason's shoulders, dashing at Derrick and holding her sniper's barrel to his neck, slowly pushing it in so that it began to leave a mark on Derrick's neck "Fucking say that again, I DARE YOU…"  
Alex let out a sigh, and then glanced at Shecklestein "remember when we all first met? When we simply obeyed orders?"  
"Yea…" Shecklestein closed his eyes, the memoires returning to him "I remember the old days…"

*flashback*  
"Stand to attention, brats!" A tall muscular man walked forward, stopping in front of the six of them "Lord Alatheus and Lady Sophia are coming to inspect you six, so don't fuck up your chances now: if you pass these inspections, you have a chance to join Alpha Squad"  
Alatheus appeared from the shadows, his cape trailing behind him as it blew gently in the wind and on his shoulder pads was a green circle with a black star inside that was indicating that he was leader of the guild. A slightly shorter green-eyed woman followed him, a green circle without a star in it indicating she was second in command  
"So, these are the six potential recruits?" Alatheus raised an eyebrow, looking between them "They all seem… 'Special', in a way…" before turning to Sophia "What do you think, my dear?"  
She nodded slightly, glancing between the six of them before turning back to Alatheus "They do have amazing abilities… I'll give them that, now… if you excuse me…" she turns away, and begins walking off.  
Alatheus turned slightly, looking at her "You don't intend to stay and watch the trainees?"  
"I'm afraid not…" she looks over her shoulder, her green eyes meeting his "Alpha squad contacted me a few hours ago saying that they needed back-up on Floor 27"  
He nods "So be it then, I'll join you on floor 27 as soon as possible, although I wonder what kind of problem it is if they're struggling with it…"  
She gave a small nod, then looked forward again and continued walking as she headed to the main town  
"Anyway…" Alatheus turns back to them "I'm also aware that I've never spoken to any of you before, and you've probably never even heard of me, or at least only heard my name, so introductions are in order" he paused, looking at the seven of them, a smile on his face as he thought to himself _So this will be the new Alpha Squad, if they all pass? Well, from the looks of it… I can tell that Harrison did a good job on choosing the recruits…_  
Alex salutes "Alex Dovakin standing by Sir!"  
Emily salutes as well, looking at him "Emily Sun Rose, sir"  
Mason nods, raising a hand and putting it to his chest "M… A… S… O… N"  
Vince giggles, raising a hand to her mouth to hide the crazed smile "Vince, but everyone calls me Vincy"  
Derrick puts his hands together, bowing "Derrick Lorde"  
Shecklestein chuckles, wringing his hands together "Shecklestein Himmler at your service, for a price anyway… heh heh…"  
Alatheus chuckled as he slowly drew his sword from its sheathe "and now… let us see if you're ready for Alpha Squad!"  
*end of Flashback*

"Sometimes I do wonder what happened to the old days" Alex gave a sigh, looking back towards Vince and Derrick "are you two kids done bickering yet?"  
Vince jumped back onto Mason's shoulders, huffing "Whatever, let's get going"  
"Grr… stupid little…" Derrick was muttering something under his breath about Vince being a 'Under-aged Whore' as they continued their way towards the boss room.  
"Come on" Emily turns to the others "nearly there-" although she paused suddenly, turning forwards again as a horde of patrollers lumbered towards them slowly, being led by a taller, more muscular patroller  
"C… R… U… S… H!" Mason takes Vince off his shoulders before charging forward and punching one of the patrollers in the face, as another one swings its morning star and tries to hit Mason in the head.  
"Come on!" Derrick chuckles, getting into a stance before running forward "Let's see you bastards try and take us all!"  
Emily rolled her eyes as she made her wolf appear beside her "If you two didn't argue so loudly, we could have got past without fighting a single one…"  
Alex chuckled, drawing his broadsword and running at them "Let's go!" he slides under one of the patrollers, swinging upwards so that he cuts the patroller cleanly in two transitioning into a roll, dodging a swing from a war-hammer that one of the other patrollers had swung at him.  
Vince growled, running forward at Derrick with her sniper raised.  
Derrick turned to her, then saw what she was doing and there was fear in his eyes "The fuck are you doing?!"  
"Just stay still!" Vince yelled, but just as she was about to collide with him- she jumped! She had landed on his shoulders, then jumped again so that she had aerial view of all the patrollers and raised her sniper, putting bullets through the heads of three of them.  
Derrick raised an eyebrow, then yelled "you fucking crazy bitch!"  
Vince smirked as she landed, brushing the dust off her assassin's gear "quit moaning!" she rolled forward, before turning back and shooting another patroller through the head "just pull yourself together and fight!"  
Derrick shook his head, and found his back to the others as the six of them were pushed up against each other, surrounded on all sides by patrollers…


	11. Chapter 11 - The Weaver Part 1

**AN: Hello, chapter 11 is here and this is when the fighting becomes serious! any mess-ups at this point and it's game over!**

 **Emily: Literally, at this point healers are the most important**

 **Dan: *rolls eyes* sure, sure...**

 **Tom: OOOOHHHHHHHHH! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT-**

 **Dan and Emily: SHUT UP!**

"The good news is… we're here, and the bad news is… we're here…" Adam chuckled, trying his best to bring some light humour into this situation, although he had quickly failed

"You know; we could just let the front-line forces handle this… couldn't we?" Tom raised an eyebrow as they looked at the large rotten wooden doors that went into the crypt

"We don't know how long that'll take, and besides they would be hogging all the experience and items, wouldn't they now?" Megan murmured, as they pushed the rotten doors open walking into the crypt, where a lone light hung from the middle of the ceiling: the light looked like a carved-out human head, and the candle's light shone through the holes in the eye sockets and the mouth

"Yeesh…" Dan sweat-drops "lovely way for guests to be able to have light…"

"I know… *giggles* isn't it?" Vince smiled, as she and the rest of Alpha squad walked out from the shadows

"Y-You guys again!" Joel got into a defensive stance, staring at Derrick with vengeance in his eyes "What now?"

"Seems we've all gathered now…" a voice smiled, as Alatheus walked through the rotting doors behind them "Ah, nice to see you all again" he chuckled, looking at Tom and the others "It seems you arrived here just after Alpha squad, I hope the patrollers were no problem for you all"

Jordan shook his head "Nah, they weren't that tough"

A small frown appeared on Alatheus' face "I see… anyway, we just have to wait for a few others to-" he paused hearing a voice approaching

"Come on guys!" yelled a familiar voice as the three of them ran into the crypt

"George and Co…" Dan sighed, watching as a large smile formed on George's face

"Ha!" George smirked "looks like we're in time to claim the boss rewards!"

"It hasn't been fought yet, you silly baka"

"Hey!" George walked up to Vince, looking down at her "don't speak anime to me girl!"

Something flashed in her brown eyes, indicating that her mood had suddenly turned sour "Oi! I have you know that I am a responsible young woman!"

"Oh really?" George raised an eyebrow "you don't look that old to me-" he paused suddenly, feeling the barrel of a gun on his throat and glanced down at her, seeing the crazed look of pleasure in her eyes "H-Hold it…! Please, I'm on my last live…!"

Vince backed slowly, lowering her gun "fine, the boss can kill you instead"

George chuckled weakly, as if everything he just said was a joke "I only said that because… w-well, you don't… you don't look like an adult… I mean-" he paused, coughing awkwardly "Well… you don't have the… umm… the… 'Body' of an adult… if you know what I mean…?"

Anger flashed again in her eyes "that's the point! 1) I'm 16, and 2) why would I want to look hot when most of those kinds of girl end up becoming sluts or play things?"

A mix between a laugh and a cough was forced out of Megan as Vince finished speaking

"Anyway!" George chuckled sweating "come on!" then runs towards the lantern-

*Scuttle Scuttle*

"Hey, did anyone else here that?" Luke raised an eyebrow while looking around in confusion

"Luke! Stop day-dreaming and come on!" George stops underneath the lantern and looks around "Come on; show yourself you pile of trash!"

A mixture of scuttles and clicks is heard as something moved in the shadows

"W-What…?" George looked around slowly, then realised… he looked upwards slowly, to see a single eye staring down at him "AH!"

The creature dropped down from the ceiling, and swung the lantern at George, who barely dodged

"What is that!?" Tom unsheathed his sword and held out his shield as they all watched it right itself, then turn to them…

It was a large skeletal spider: to be more precise a skull spider. It was mostly covered in bones, of both humans and other creatures and the bones were the same shade of yellow as Papyrus paper. What non-armoured parts of the body and its flesh were ash-grey in colour, with spots of green and red on it that looked recent (the green was its blood, the red the blood of its foes). Its head was a large skull with a single eye in the middle that was in the mouth, so it could close the mouth to protect its eye and it had only two visible arms, as it used the other six to get around: one arm had the lantern hanging from it and blood and flesh was hanging of it, while the other arm had the appearance of a scythe that was perfectly sharpened each and every day.

"W-What is that?" George stepped back, pulling out his knife "T-The boss…?" he shook his head then ran at it, holding his knife out "Die!"

There were more clicks as it raised its scythe in preparation

"Die scum!" George went to stab it, but that was when it went downhill- The Skull Weaver swiped at him with the lantern arm, then while George was distracted picked him up with the other arm, the scythe piecing George's chest plate and going through his chest

George screamed as he was lifted up by the scythe through his chest then slammed into the ground

The Skull Weaver made clicking noises as it raised its lantern arm, baring the scythe and beginning to skin George alive, blood spurting everywhere

George was screaming more now while in constant agony as the skin was torn from his body, his bones quickly becoming revealed as the skin and muscles from George's body was ripped off

"W-What…" Adam stepped back, raising his knife defensively

Vince was not giggling like normal- she was now just laughing "More bloodshed! More hell! More fun!"

Emily turned to Vince and sweat-dropped "Vince… you really, really, need to calm down…"

Vince turned to her teammate, an insane smile on her face "I thought you wanted to watch them all perish?"

"I… not like this!"

"Hey! Don't hurt George!" Morgan ran towards the Skull Weaver, raising his spear "die!"

The Skull Weaver turned to him, clicking as it pulled the scythe out of George's bloodied and mangled body as he continued to scream weakly in pain, rapidly losing blood

Morgan jumped, intending to pierce the Skull Weaver's eye although the Skull's jaw shut, protecting the eye from damage before opening the jaw again and swinging with the scythe

"Gah!" Morgan was caught by the scythe across his waist, cleanly cutting him in two and was screaming in pain

The Skull Weaver walked forward, picking up Morgan's upper half using one scythe and pinned him to a tree, the blade going through Morgan's chest as the other scythe was scooping out his intestines

"W… What?" Morgan was coughing up large amounts of blood now as he watched the creature tie the intestines around the tree and made a loop in it, putting Morgan's head through it and left him literally hanging from the tree, nearly dead before turning back to all the others, clicking and tilting its head as it slowly approached…

Writing appeared underneath the boss reading 'The Skull Weaver' and 18 green health bars appeared beside it

Alatheus draws his sword, getting into a stance "right, we all need to work together to kill this beast"

"I noticed" Tom huffed as he got himself into a stance as well, sword and shield out

The Skull Weaver made clicking noises, moving its head in a way that made it appear as if it was laughing, a crazed bloodlust look in its eye

Alatheus turned to Emily "Alpha squad, you'll strike from the right, with the larger scythe hand-" then turns to Joel "you lot handle the left, with the lantern and smaller scythe-" then looks ahead of him again "I'll take it on directly"

"Why you?!" Megan huffed, putting her hands on her hips, annoyed that Alatheus had the fun of tackling it directly

"Because he's the strongest out of all of us…" Dan murmured, yellow writing visible on the scouter "He's level 65 with 38,000 HP…"

Megan nods, unholstering her revolvers "make's sense I guess…"

The Skull Weaver lunged forward, swinging the large scythe that was its right 'hand' in an arc, trying to get them all at once

Megan jumped backwards, shooting at the eye, although the jaw snapped shut so that it was protected again

"Ross! Try and break that armour with your hammer!" Dan looked over at him, then looked back in time so that he could parry the scythe with his swords

Ross nods, running forward then jumping, swinging downwards allowing a clear shot of the large skull that made up its right 'shoulder' although it moved just as it was about to connect, causing Ross' hammer to slam into the ground "Damn!"

Emily pointed her staff at the Skull Weaver, a blue glow coming from the tip of the wooden weapon as a blue flame was launched at the Skull Weaver, although it charged through the fire with ease, swinging its scythes and catching her on the waist, causing her to scream in pain

"Oi! Skull-for-brains!" Dan ran at the Skull Weaver, jumping onto one of its legs and using that as leverage, jumping again and slashing at the scythe

It turned, raising the scythe (with Emily still stuck on the end) towards him trying to block, although it was too late as the two swords slashed at where the Scythe was connected to the arm, damaging it heavily.

It clicked, lifting its scythe into the air to swing downwards to try and hit Dan, which also threw Emily off in the process

Dan ran at the Skull Weaver and slid under it, striking its under-belly in the process which didn't do much due to the bone armour and rolled out from underneath, running forward and catching Emily just before she hit the ground

"D-Dan…" she blushed heavily, getting out of his arms and shaking her head, turning away "don't think I'm going to thank you or anything!"

"Alright princess" a small smirk appeared on the red head's face "whatever you say, but don't think I did it to save you…" although the smirk disappeared as quickly as it appeared "I only did it because I would hate to see an old… 'Acquaintance' die after coming all this way…" then turned, running back towards the Skull Weaver

 _Does he even care anymore…?_ Emily thought, shaking her head as her staff glowed a faint white, healing herself _is he with anyone else…? No, he wouldn't act like this otherwise…_

Vince giggled, jumping backwards as she reloaded her sniper "You would have made an excellent pet!" she pulls the trigger quickly, firing three shots at the eye, although like all the other attempts the jaw snapped shut just before they reached their target, reflecting all three bullets

"Damn it!" Joel snapped, running forward and jumping, punching at the large skull that was its left 'shoulder' "this thing isn't even being scratched!"

"We can see that Joel!" Tom snapped, parrying the smaller scythe then slid under the appendage, avoiding the fire attack from the lantern "Not even our hardest attacks are leaving marks… we need to change the plan, and quickly!"

Alex nods, swinging his broadsword although it bounced off the bone armour "alright then smart-stuff, got any ideas?!"

Tom sweat-dropped, turning to the Skull Weaver "not right now, but I'm thinking"

"Well you may want to think faster before we all die!" Alex snapped back

Tom sweatdrops then turns to Luke "can you summon anything?"

Luke nods "Yes, I have jars of mini skeletons, they're quite cute and-"

"Just summon them! They can be a distraction!"

Luke nods, throwing down three jars, which each let out 3, 1 ft tall skeletons with little swords and shields

Alatheus looks over "I have a possible solution… it'll take a lot out of us, but it'll also take a lot out of it"

"What's the plan?" Shecklestein looked over "if it's to share the loot, you can go f-"

"Shecklestein, stop thinking about yourself for once!" Alatheus snapped, "Anyway, we just stall this thing out, two of us attack it at a time while the others get back and we'll keep switching out"

Adam shrugs "that could work, I mean, it's only got two appendages that can actually hurt, so two people handling it shouldn't be a problem"

The Skull Weaver clicked, before taking to the roof of the crypt, spitting out poison and leaving it to form puddles around the room

"Well crap!" Megan snapped, pointing her guns upwards and shooting at it "we can't damage the armour, and now it's up there so the only parts of it we can attack are the armoured parts!"

"Hang on!" Emily turns to Vince "is your ability charged, the lock-on bullet?"

She nods "yep, I've been saving it for an occasion, why?" she tilts her head curiously, smiling "do you want me to put a boyfriend through your-"

"No!" Emily snapped quickly, shaking her head "If we can make it not suspect the bullet somehow… we could hit its eye and blind it!"

Tom nods "that could work, we just need to-"

"On it!" Vince smiled, before she pushed all the bullets into one, making the lock-on bullet and aiming at the Skull Weaver

"Wait!" Tom yelled, stepping forward and raising a hand as if to stop her "Don't! It'll see the bullet and-"

Vince pulled the trigger, watching as the bullet sped towards its eye

The Skull Weaver clicked, snapping the jaw shut so the eye was protected

"You wasted the damned shot!" Ross yelled and turned her, anger visible in his eyes, however, Vince had simply smiled, raising a hand

"Wait…" she grinned slightly, brown eyes dancing with glee "it hasn't done the second round two yet…"

"Second round?" Dan shook his head "your fucking crazy if you think the bullet will just bounce off and then go for another attack!"

She turned to him and smiled seductively, raising an eyebrow "I know I'm crazy, thank you for the compliment"

Dan sweat-dropped "It wasn't even a compliment…" then looked up and watched the bullet

The bullet skimmed the jaw at first and circled around, so that when the Skull Weaver finally opened the jaw- The bullet struck it directly in its eye, causing it to fall off the roof and crash into the ground, spasing and squirming in pain

Vince giggled "There we go, single shot"

Tom raised an eyebrow in amazement and confusion "What… How… what just happened…?"

Megan simply shrugged "No idea, wish my bullets could do that"

"I can teach you, if you want" Vince glanced at Megan, the insanity so visible in her eyes that it made Megan step back slightly, whether it was because she was afraid or just wanted to be closer to Tom was unknown

Even through the pain, the Skull Weaver forced itself up, and turned to her, clicking angrily, its one eye now bleeding as it charged at them

"Sorry hun" Vince shrugged slightly, a look of crazed innocence on her face "I had to"

"Vince! Get back, it's Adam and Shecklestein's turn to stall!" Alatheus yelled, watching as she jumped back and landed beside him, just as both Adam and Shecklestein ran forward…


	12. Chapter 12 - The Weaver Part 2

**AN: Hello guys and girls! Thank you once again for the reviews, they mean a lot.**

 **Ross: Nothing snarky to say this time?**

 **Mason: …**

 **Me: Nope :D.**

 **Dan: Well, that's worrying…**

 **Alex: Why… do we hang out?**

 **Shecklestein: Duh! We get to steal all their gold.**

 **Joel: Touch my gold and I'll-**

 **Me: QUICK! READ THE NEXT CHAPTER BEFORE WE HAVE AN OUT OF CHARACTER BRAWL! (I'm also aware that I've been sloppy lately and I apologise, as there's been many delays recently. So to make up for it I intend to post two chapters this week)**

As Tom looked around everyone was showing signs of fatigue, he and Megan had both lost their first life while everyone else was on low health, then he returned his gaze back to the Skull Weaver who had one and a half health bars remaining. They had all been fighting for 2 hours and it was only just now they had it under two health bars.

Alatheus got into a stance, raising his sword and running at the Skull Weaver "Die!" and swung, getting a good hit on the right 'shoulder' now that the skull protecting it had been broken off entirely

Dan sweat dropped, noticing its health bar dip from one and a half to just one… "Guys, my scouter's picking something up from the Skull Weaver… it seems like fear-" then shook his head quickly "That can't be right?!"

The Skull Weaver screeched, and jumped up to the roof.

"What's it doing?" Adam shook his head

"Simple" Alatheus sheathed his sword "it's panicking now that it'll lose health slowly, because it's bleeding out, but at the same time it's toxic blood is spilling out… all we can do now is keep moving and try not to get caught!"

"Right" Tom sheathes his sword "just keep moving! Don't stop"

And finally, after 10 or so minutes…

An exhausted screech escaped the Skull Weaver, who had weakened considerably enough to let go, collapsing to the ground and twitching as it forced itself to stand.

Ross stepped forward, raising his hammer "let's finish this!"

Alatheus shakes his head "just watch…"

The Skull Weaver took a few steps forward, it was in a terrible state: one of the large skulls had broken entirely and the other was heavily damaged; the jaw that protected its eye had snapped off and blood was pouring from it, as well as other wounds on its body; before giving a final noise, a sad mix between a screech and clicking, before it collapsed, dying…

"D-did… we do it…?" Joel asked tiredly, as they waited until-

The message finally showed up: 'Congratulations! You beat the second major boss; you have obtained the Weaver Blade, please continue onto the next floor'

Alatheus walked forward and picked up the sword, putting it in his inventory.

"Hey!" Tom snapped, walking forward "that was our reward! We did more damage to that thing!"

"True…" Alatheus turned to them, a blank look in his eyes "but I had the plan… and my forces were here first…"

"Just give us the sword!" Joel yelled, stepping forward and getting into a stance, ready to fight if it came to it.

Alatheus turned to Joel "The guild requires this blade… for our true plan"

Luke trembled slightly "W-What plan?"

He chuckled "I will not fall for that…" then turned back to them "let me just say this now… interfere with the plan, and you will not be shown mercy…" Alatheus turned, heading towards the stair-case leading up to floor 51 then stopped again, glancing over his shoulder at the players "this plan will help us all… it'll keep us free, peaceful… never again will war or strife terrorise us…" then looks forward "Alpha squad, come with me…" and goes up the stairs, going to floor 51.

"You hear that?" Derrick chuckled "by the time you're all ready, it'll be too late… the plan will be in motion and nothing you can do will stop it, us, or lord Alatheus…" Derrick turned, then followed up the stairs, quickly followed by Mason, Alex and Shecklestein.

"I wouldn't try to stop us" Vince giggled "after-all, by the time it's all in place…"

Emily nods in agreement "you could stop us, but you would have to be quick…" then turns away as she and Vince follow their teammates up the stairs…

Later, at floor 50's Inn…

"I wonder what their plan is…" Dan muttered, stretching "oh well… but still, that fight was near impossible…and that's only half way through the Ever-Hollow Tower…"

"I wonder what he meant…" Joel murmured, remembering Alatheus' words from earlier that day…

*flashback*

"This plan will help us all… it'll keep us free, peaceful… never again will war or strife terrorise us…"

*end of flashback*

Joel shook his head "what could he mean…? That his plan will 'keep us free'… free from what? And what could he of meant when he said 'Never again will war or strife terrorise us'…?"

Adam shook his head "no idea Joel… for now let's just get some sleep, we all deserve it…"

They all nodded in agreement, eventually saying goodnight to each other and going off to their rooms…

Meanwhile, something was wrong on floor one…

A ranger was walking through the town of Balmoral, heading towards the 'Drunken Huntsman' when he felt a hand touch his shoulder "Hmm?" he turns to the person "can I help you- Urk!" he looked down slowly, looking at the sword that pierced his chest, the handle was a deep shade of red with marks on it, as if the weapon was used very often. He looked back up slowly at the person who stabbed him "W-W… what are you…?" he was looking into a hood, with the person's face hidden by it as well as the shadows of the night

The figure said nothing, removing their blade from the ranger's chest, and sheathing the weapon, not even bothering to wipe the blade clean and walked off, leaving the Ranger to bleed out slowly until he died…

The figure got a communicator out of their inventory and speaks into it "Sir, I eliminated the target

"good job… did you get the amulet?"

The figure nods, taking the amulet they had stolen from the ranger and holding it "Yes sir, I got the Amulet of awakening…"

"Good, bring it back to me… once I have that amulet and I can unlock my true powers, I can make sure no one ever leaves this game…"

"Still sir, it seemed odd that a random weakling would have the amulet…"

"True, either way… bring it back to me immediately"

"Understood sir" and turns off their communicator, heading to the teleportal in the centre of town, beside the stand that lets players set up guilds…


	13. Chapter 13-Foxes, Guys and Thugs, Oh my!

**AN: Hello one and all, this is the second chapter for this week to make up for the weeks I missed posting (I was on holiday in Morroco, great but WAYY too hot for me, personally)**

 **Ross: Finally, we get to the good part of this!**

 **Me: Now, Now... all of this story is good, right?**

 **Vince: Yep, it sure is! *grins insanely***

 **Alatheus: *sweatdrops***

 **Tom: Welp, least she's enthusiastic about it...**

"This is floor fifty-seven?" Dan raised an eyebrow as they looked around "wow… I have to admit; the Japanese decorations really give it a feel of what japan in the real world is like…"

Megan looked around as she heard a noise "did anyone else hear that?"

Adam shook his head "no, I didn't… Megan, you sure you aren't turning insane like Vince?"

"I did! I heard something…" she turned towards a cherry blossom tree as she heard what sounded like yipping "What is that…?" she walks over to the tree and looks underneath it, and sees the beautiful creature sitting there, stretching. It was a beautiful golden fox, its nine-tails stretching out fully as it tilted its head up and looked at the sky

"Hello?" Megan walked forward, raising a hand out "wow… you're beautiful…"

 ** _I know_** purred a voice in reply, although it appeared as if the voice came from nowhere

"W-Whoa!" Megan looked around quickly; sweat dropping "W-Where… What?"

 ** _Do you have dust in your ears or something? I'm right here!_**

Megan looked ahead of her, and stared at the nine-tailed fox "I-Is… that you talking?"

The fox looked at her directly, a blue star visible on its forehead, eyes shining a bright shade of green **_Yes, who did you think, the cherry blossom tree?_**

"W-Well…" Megan shook her head awkwardly "No, it's just…"

 ** _Ah, you've never encountered a Kitsune before, have you?_** the Kitsune yawned, stretching its nine tails out before standing up and walking towards Megan, the golden creature was slightly larger than a regular fox, the blue star glowing slightly as it spoke to Megan **_I guess I should introduce myself… I am Xiaomu_**

"N-Nice to meet you…?" Megan felt extremely awkward, talking to the kitsune "How are… you speaking?"

 ** _You must be dumb_** Xiaomu raised an eyebrow **_I'm using telekinesis, if you hadn't guessed_**

"Guys…?" Megan called out to the others "I'm talking to a fox here…"

"Megan, I'm telling you that your going-" Ross paused as they joined her and the Kitsune in the clearing "…insane…?"

The kitsune turned to them, raising her eyebrows again **_Friends of yours I assume… Megan?_**

Tom drew his sword ad held out his shield "Hey!"

Xiaomu looked at Tom, a smirk slowly appearing on her muzzle **_You want to play…? I have no time for lowlifes like you… I am royalty after-all_**

"Royalty?" Joel chuckled slightly "You're only a little fox, you can't do anything impor- Gah!" and found himself picked up suddenly by a mysterious force, noticing the Kitsune's eyes were glowing purple

 ** _Take that back, you low-life_**

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry…"

 ** _Hmm…_** The Kitsune went quiet, before throwing Joel into a tree **_Apology accepted, for now…_**

"So…" Dan muttered "What's a creature like you doing out here alone?"

 ** _I'm sun bathing, if you hadn't noticed_**

Dan raised an eyebrow, then looked at the others in slight confusion "ok…?"

 ** _I assume you're all here to head to the palace?_**

"The palace…?" Jordan raised an eyebrow "There's a palace here? On this floor?"

 ** _Yes, this floor clearly has a palace_** and turns in the direction of the town, pointing her nose that way, **_tell you what… I am so generous I'll take you there myself_**

Adam nods "I guess that'd be helpful, thanks"

 ** _Well, come on then servants_** she turns, and walks in the direction of town

"Is it me, or is she so full of herself?"

Everyone else nods "agreed" and with that agreement, they all follow the Kitsune to the town of Hashihoma…

After about 10 or so minutes, the nine of them arrived at Hashihoma

 ** _Well, we're here_** Xiaomu chirped, then turned to them **_you should thank me for bring you here_**

Luke nodded slightly "thanks…"

"Oi bloke, give me ya dosh!"

Tom and the others turned, looking at a couple of people who had gathered in the centre of town…

There was a young man who appeared to be in his earlier twenties; he was wearing black trousers that were too baggy for him and a matching shirt that had skulls on it although it also looked too big. The shirt had badly rushed writing on the back that said 'Skullz'. He was wearing a black bandana and a mouth cover that looked too retarded for its own good.

"Come on then son, give me da dosh"

The person who was being bothered shook his head, drawing his sword, which was a well-kept katana "Never, how dare you think that you can bully others!"

"Bully others? Yo, Bro! I ain't bullying others. I'm making them contribute to Team Skullz uprising"

The man clenched his jaw, raising his Katana "Leave now! Before I end your existence!"

The team Skullz member shook his head, unholstering his desert eagle and holding it sideways, so that his hand was twisted "No way dude! You'll contribute to Team Skullz too!" and pulled the trigger three times, somehow managing to not break his wrist from recoil

The man stepped back and raised his katana, reflecting all three bullets.

"Whoa Bro! what trick are you using?!, whatever, I'm out" and turned, walking off, arms swinging back and forth as he lowered himself, trying to act cool…

"Does… anyone else wonder what just happened…?" Ross raised an eyebrow as the nine of them walk over to the man, sheathing his Katana

"Are you ok?" Luke asked, looking at him

He nods, smiling slightly "I'm fine, there's no need to worry. I didn't even engage him in combat" then bows "my greatest apologises, I have not introduced myself… The name's Taro"

Tom nods "Right, I'm Tom" then smiles over to Megan "and that's my girlfriend, Megan"

Megan chuckled slightly, waving "Hi"

Joel wasn't paying attention as he looked around in awe, suddenly feeling a familiar smack over the back of the head, turning to Ross "Ow! What was that for!?"

"Introduce yourself" he snapped, and then turned to Taro "I'm Ross and that's retard"

"For Fuck- Can I not be bullied for a change?!" then turns to Taro "Don't listen to him, I'm Joel"

Luke looked over smiling "I'm Luke"

Jordan walked up to Taro, returning the bow "A Pleasure, my name's Jordan"

Dan smirked "And I'm-"

"Dan, correct?"

Dan stepped back slightly; sweat dropping "How…?"

"I was told by a girl named Emily that a guy matching your description would be passing through soon, and that you would have friends with you"

Dan turned away "Emily? You sneaky bitch..." then turns back to Taro "Yea, I'm Dan"

Tom shook his head in awe "Alpha Squad passed through here? Was their leader with them as well?"

Taro shook his head "did he have a pendant on? A green circle with a black star?"

Tom quickly shook his head "That's him!" then turns to the others "if we can catch him, we can-"

"Why, is he wanted?" Taro raised an eyebrow

Luke nods quickly "Yea, he's up to… something"

"Basically we have no evidence" Ross rolled his eyes "but we believe something might be up"

Taro nods "Let us make haste then! Follow me to the imperial palace"

 ** _I am still here you know!_** Xiaomu huffed, looking up and glaring at Taro as if annoyed at the fact that he hadn't noticed her

Taro stepped back slightly, blushing "T-The princess' messenger?!" he quickly got down to one knee "Your highness"

"Maybe she is royalty," Joel whispered

"Yea, a royal pain in the ass" Dan chuckled quietly

Taro stood up again, picking up Xiaomu and putting her on his shoulders "Come! To the palace!" and ran off towards a large building

Luke shrugged slightly, as the eight of them followed towards the large building…


	14. Chapter 14-The princess and the Assassin

**Me: 'Ello 'Ello! Back again with another chapter!**

 **Xiaomu: And the screen time I deserve!**

 **Me: Xiaomu... *sigh* just read on before she gets a bigger head, please...**

 **Xiaomu: Heh heh!**

They arrived at the entrance to the palace, which was a set of large iron doors with a samurai statue on either side

"Halt!" a voice yelled, although it appeared as if the voice came from nowhere and everywhere

Adam looked around slightly nervous "Anyone else hear that…?"

Taro nods "Yes, it's the guardians…" then turns to one of the samurai statues "General Tullius..."

On the left side of the large doors, the samurai's eyes gleamed purple, as the statue came off its stand, walking towards them "Taro… Why have you brought foreigners to the palace?"

"They have reason to guess that one of the visitor's is a villain"

"Do they have any proof of their accusations?" The samurai raised a hand to his back, drawing the long blade from its sheathe, for a statue the sword looked very real.

Tom shakes his head, stepping forward "Well, we don't have physical evidence, but-"

"You have no evidence; therefore, we can assume that the accused is innocent: Now leave!" General Tullius had raised his samurai sword "before I turn you all into sushi!"

 ** _Let them in Tullius_**

"Who dares try and change my mind?!" The statue looked around, then looks down at his feet and sees the Kitsune "Xiaomu…"

She nods **_I am allowing these people in, so do it!_**

"You cannot give me orders! Only princess Miyoko can do that, and you are fully aware of that!"

 ** _Tullius…_** The Kitsune's eye began to glow **_purple I have said before that anyone who disobeys a direct order will be punished… These people are my new personal servants, so let them in…_** the kitsune's eyes narrowed **_immediately…_**

The statue steps back, slight fear etched into his stone face "U-Understood Ma'am!" and stepped back further, then turned to the other statue "M-Mathew! Open that door!"

The other statue nods "Yes sir!" he salutes, climbing off his podium, walking over to the large iron doors and pushing them forward, watching as they opened up

 ** _Why thank you_** Xiaomu smiled, her eyes immediately returning to their normal green colour then turned to the others **_come on then, let us go!_**

The eight of them share a look, before following her and Taro into the imperial palace…

"Thank you Princess Miyoko…" Alatheus smiled, receiving something from her "with your help, the Crystal Dragon Brotherhood can now improve further at their job of protecting the peace…" he gets down on one knee, kissing her hand "Thank you dear"

She giggled slightly, blushing "thank you good sir, you may now stand"

Alatheus nods smiling, and stands up then turns around "Ah, Heroes…"

"Alatheus, your plan ends here!" Dan yelled, stepping forward and drawing both of his blades

He chuckles; shaking his head "Now, now… you believe you can stop us, but it is beyond too late…" he smiles slightly "Ah, there you are Spectre"

The assassin from floor 30 walks into the throne room, his helmet's visor down "Sir"

"You're just in time…" Alatheus turned to Joel and the others "I'm afraid I must stop your progress here, Spectre… I assume you know what you're doing?"

He nodded, drawing two blades from the sheathes on his waist "Yes Sir"

Alatheus nods, smirking then turns to Emily "Lockyer, now"

She nods "yes sir!" and raised her staff, slamming it into the ground as all the members of the Crystal Dragon Brotherhood (apart from Spectre) left the room, and presumably the floor as well.

Spectre watches through his visor as they all turned to him "I have followed you since the desert floor…" he drags one blade across the other as if sharpening them "Now we finally get to engage each other in combat!"

"I'll handle this…" Joel walked forward, stretching his arms "I hope you're ready to face my power!"

Spectre chuckled, a low noise that sounded like gears grinding from underneath his visor "You believe you can best me in combat…? I am a peacekeeper for the brotherhood! I was born to slay selfish, ungrateful, power-hungry bastards such as you!"

Joel growled, "Bring it then!" and ran at Spectre, intending to punch him in the visor that covered his face, hoping to break it

A small smile appeared on Spectre's face, although it could not be seen, as the assassin vanished suddenly

"What?" Joel stopped, looking around "where…? Where did he go?!"

"Why, I'm right here!"

Joel turned around quickly and raised his hands to defend, but the blade's cut through his skin, one blade stuck in Joel's hand while the other slit a wrist.

"Gah!" Joel stumbled back quickly, blood already streaming from his wounds.

"You call yourself a fighter?" Spectre laughed, again the noise of gears crunching from inside the visor "You truly are pathetic!"

"Heh… who says I need my hands to fight…?" Joel smiled, then gritted his teeth, biting the handle of the blade and slowly pulling it out of his hand with his mouth

"G-Gih!?" Spectre hissed as he stepped backwards slightly "H-How… no human has ever been able to use their hands after I-"

"You must be getting old then" Joel smiled weakly, and then ran at Spectre again.

Spectre snarled before dashing forward, while swinging his knife in an arc

Joel smiled, jumping backwards before whirling forward in a helicopter kick "Tatsumaki Senpukyakku!"

Spectre vanished just before the attack connected, then reappeared behind Joel and slashing with his blade

Joel smirked, quickly turning around and kicking his leg around in a sweeping motion, causing Spectre to stumble backwards, before dashing forward and striking Spectre directly in the chest, making him stumble backwards further.

"Ugh…" Spectre slumped to one knee, breathing ragged as the armour he was wearing was crushing his chest "C-Cur… se… you…"

Joel chuckled "who's the 'Fighter' now?" then walked up to Spectre "Here…" he held a hand out "let me help you up"

"W-Wha… What are you…?"

Joel smirked "Shoryuken!" and jumped upwards doing the uppercut, launching Spectre upwards and backwards and sending him crashing into a wall

Spectre was sparking, slumped up against the wall and his visor heavily cracked "Y… Youuu… B-B-Bastard… T-That was N-Not H-Honourable…"

"I know" Joel chuckled "but neither were you" he walked forward, placing a foot on Spectre's leg and pressing, crushing it

"G-G-Gih!" Spectre was forcing out coughs that had blood trickling out of his visor "G-Guh… C-C-Curzzz… Curse you…"

"Now…" Joel bent down, grabbing the bottom of Spectre's helmet "Let's see what's under this piece of crap" and lifted his arm, tearing the helmet and visor off Spectre's head.

Spectre was sickly white as if he lacked nutrients, with scars and recently closed wounds all over his face. Parts of his neck and head are covered in mechanical parts, as if he was rebuilt from a corpse and his eyes were a dull yellow in colour. A thin trickle of blood was slipping down his neck "Y… You bas-" he stopped, coughing up excessive amounts of blood as he let out a low wheezing noise, as if forcing himself to breath.

Joel frowns slightly as he picked Spectre up by the throat, slowly crushing Spectre's throat "now, who are you?"

Dan raised a hand, shaking his head in annoyance "Come on Joel, stop man-handling the poor bastard"

Tom nods "Dan has a point, he's near death as it is, just drop him and let him speak at his own pace"

Joel smiled again "Gladly" and with that, he literally drops Spectre, who cries out in pain

"I-I *Kzzt* shan't… reveal the g-guild's motives…" he let out a low, forced chuckled which also brought up blood "but I w-will tell you this… you're all too… late… Y-You won't…"

"What are you?" Joel kicked Spectre, making him force up more blood "You're clearly not human!"

"I… I am… not human… but I am… a… a- *Kzzt*" Spectre allowed a forced, weak smile to show before closing his eyes, head tilting to the side as his armour sparked furiously.

"He's dead…" Megan murmured.

They turned to the princess who had been watching the entire time, eyes wide in fear and shock

Jordan walks forward slowly "Don't worry your highness… we can explain…"


	15. Chapter 15 - The Stone Guardians

**AN: Hello guys and girls! As per usual, thanks for the reviews as they mean a lot!**

 **Dan: Well, this should be fun...**

 **Ross: Whoop de doop...**

 **Joel: I'MMA FIRIN' MY LAZER! *Fires Hadouken's everywhere***

 **Me: Welp... read away guys, read away while I try and sort out these twats... GUYS!**

"I see…" The princess looks from Xiaomu to Taro, before looking at the eight heroes "I understand the issue now… forgive me, I have not introduced myself…" She curtsies "I am the White Fox Princess, Miyoko"

Adam smiles, bowing "An honour, I am Sir Adam-" he is suddenly interrupted by Ross slapping him on the back of the head

Ross shakes his head "He's not a sir, he's a failed flirt…"

Miyoko giggled "I see…" then nods

After everyone has done their introductions, she turns to Xiaomu "So why did you bring these nice people to the palace?"

 ** _I assumed they would want your permission so that they could try to challenge the Jade warrior_**

"The… Jade warrior?" Dan raised an eyebrow in confusion "Who's that"

Miyoko shook her head then turned to Xiaomu "you didn't even explain to them? They were not even aware why you brought them here?"

 ** _Hmmp…_** the kitsune's ears flicked down in embarrassment, turning away angrily.

"Anyway…" The princess turns back to them "The Jade warrior was one of my elite guards, but… something went wrong, and he turned against us… presiding within the ruins of Fūjin, the wind god"

Tom nods "I'm assuming no one has beaten him… So he's the boss of this floor?"

Miyoko nods "Yes, and as I'm aware someone-" she glances back to the kitsune then looks at them "didn't tell you why she brought you here, but I'm making this request…" there appeared to be a sadness in her eyes, at the loss of her good friend "please get rid of the Jade Warrior… please make him regret his decision…"

Joel nods "don't worry about it, we'll handle him…" then turns and looks over to Spectre's corpse "what about him…?"

The princess shakes her head again, "do not worry, it will be cleaned up…" she turns to Xiaomu "My dear, will you take them to the ruins, and possibly help them fight?"

 ** _Hmm…_** she raises a paw and licks it, rubbing an eye **_I don't know… what's in it for me?_**

"You'll get a new playmate"

 ** _Hmm…_** The Kitsune looked over, raising an eyebrow **_what kind of playmate? The last one I got broke quickly_**

Miyoko rolled her eyes slightly, then looked back down at her "I'll see if I can get one of the enchanters to make a dragon appear to be your friend"

 ** _Ooh! A dragon, that could be a worthy opponent…_** she stands up **_let's make haste!_** and runs out

Miyoko sighed, then turned to them "Please don't mind, she likes to think highly of herself, if you hadn't noticed… if you need to convince her to do something, just offer food or some other way to relax to her and she's willing do it"

Luke nods "right, we'll remember that… let's go!" and with that, the eight of them left

Taro went to follow them when-

"Taro, could I have a word with you?"

He stops and turns back to the princess, "yes your highness" and walks back up to the throne, going back down to one knee "What is it?"

About half an hour had past, and the eight heroes were still following Xiaomu down a seemingly never-ending dirt path.

"Xiaomu… how much longer?" Adam raised an eyebrow as they continued following the Kitsune

 ** _Ssh!_** The Kitsune turned to him **_I'm figuring that out_** she turned back, pointing her muzzle into the air and taking a few sniffs, small black nose twitching

"I…" Joel had begun, but shook his head "how do you even smell a building?"

 ** _I'm not, I'm smelling the air_**

Joel sweat drops, turning back to the others, then looks back at her "How…?"

 ** _Long story, every place on this floor has its own scent she paused, flinching slightly Ugh… we'll be there soon_**

"How do you know?" Tom watched, curious

 ** _The temple just smells of rot and fear…_** The Kitsune shuddered slightly, as if nervous **_Ever since the Jade Warrior took over…_**

Dan nods "We understand; do you want us to take the lead now or-" he paused suddenly, watching as the Kitsune made a little noise "You ok?"

She nods, rubbing her muzzle gently with a paw after she sneezed ** _I'm fine *sniff* I'm just expelling the smell of corpses from my sensitive little nose…_** she shuddered again **_Anyway, come on… we're nearly there!_** and ran ahead

Megan raised an eyebrow, as they continued to follow Xiaomu to the temple…

Another half an hour or so past before they finally reached the temple…

"Whoa…" Ross murmured as they looked around

The entrance had two columns standing either side that used to be a pearly white but were now a dark grey, as if the colour had drained from them. The temple itself looked more like a castle, and the walls were severely cracked and ruined, as if one hammer swing could break every wall in the entire building. There were pools of blood on the ground and in front of the entrance was a podium, with a statue standing on top; It looked like the statue had once looked like a person, although from the knees up was missing, so you wouldn't be able to tell who

"This… is the temple that the god of wind used to live in?" Luke looked at the others curiously, then looked at Xiaomu

 ** _No, this was where they used to worship him, but once the Jade Warrior attacked…_**

Tom nods in understanding "I see… anything we need to know while we are here?"

She nods **_Yes, he has two jade lions as pets_**

"Wait… WHAT?!" Luke held his metal staff tighter becoming pale "T-Two of them?!"

 ** _Are you deaf? Yes, two!_**

Before Luke could reply, a roar is heard as something was coming out of the temple

"Everyone!" Adam yelled, as they all turned to the approaching threat "Battle positions! Let's show these things who we are!"

Another roar is heard, as the two beings slowly lumbered towards them…

Tom raised his shield, sword in hand "What are those?!"

 ** _The Jade Lions!_** Xiaomu walked forward **_I shall help in this fight!_**

Tom nods, then turns back to watch them approach… There were two large green lions that looked like statues, their eyes gleaming blue as if under some spell

"Are they under some sort of spell?" Dan asked, turning to Xiaomu

 ** _No, when he was part of the elite guards, he was the lion tamer, the one who owned and had control over all of the jade lion's in the princess' command, but he took those two because they are the strongest. Due to his taming abilities, it is not a spell, but rather they are following him of their own free will_**

Tom nods, then looks at Adam "keep them distracted-" and turned quickly to Luke "your spells won't do much, help Adam distract them with your little skeletons"

"Got it!" Luke nods confidently, holding a jar out

"Ross!" Tom turns to him "use your hammer and directly strike them in the face!" and quickly turned to Dan "You help Ross!"

Dan nods "Heh, got it… Let's do it to it!"

"Megan, you're with me!"

"Got it!" she draws her revolvers and starts shooting at the jade lions, although the bullets either rebound off or are stuck in the statues

"Dan, go!" Tom yelled

"Got it!" Dan runs forward, sliding under one of the jade lions and slashing at its stomach, causing chips and shards of Jade to go everywhere before coming out from underneath it, jumping onto its back and stabbing both swords through its back

"Ross! Break their defences!"

"Alright!" Ross runs forward and slides past one of the jade lions, swinging his hammer downwards and directly striking it in the back, causing cracks to appear in it

"That's one damaged, target it!" Adam runs at it and jumps over it, landing behind it and striking it in the back of the legs

 ** _Understood!_** Xiaomu ran forward and jumped onto the back of the damaged Jade Lion, a purple flame in her mouth

"Xiaomu!" Tom yelled "What are you doing!?"

 ** _灰色の炎_**! A Blast of purple flame came from her mouth, striking the Jade Lion's back hard and causing its back to melt in on itself as it reared up, roaring

"What did you do?" Luke yelped, jumping backwards

 ** _Flame of Blight_** She smiled, then jumped off it again and landed in front of it, opening her mouth **_ハリケーンブラスト_** ** _!_**

The Jade lion roared, before being sent backwards by a massive blast of wind, crashing into a pillar and breaking into little shards of Jade

Adam looked over in surprise "And that was-"

 ** _Hurricane Blast_** She smiled again innocently, then jumped backwards slightly Behind you!

Adam turned and rolled to the side, barely avoiding the other Jade Lion's attack

Tom ran forward, knocking his shield up to hit the under-side of the Jade Lion's chin and cause it to stumble backwards, before swinging his sword up and piercing the green stone, however his sword was stuck in the creature's chest

The Jade Lion reared up on its back legs and let out a bellowing roar, before stomping and charging at Tom

"Stay there!" Ross ran forward, raising his shield and activating Defensive Stance as he stopped in front of Tom

The Jade lion ran into the shield and stumbled backwards slightly, roaring

"Luke!" Dan looked over at him "Bring the other Jade Lion back!"

"Why? That sounds insane!"

"You're a damned necromancer! If you bring it back it'll work for you, remember?"

"Oh yea…!" Luke raised his staff and slammed it into the ground, and the piles of broken Jade slowly reformed into the second Jade lion, which ran at the first one, slashing

 _If I can get my sword… that's it!_ Tom smiled as he thought to himself then looked at Ross "If I can get to my sword, I can finish slicing upwards and maybe cut it in half"

He nods "right" then lowered his shield "Go!"

Tom ran forward, rolling underneath the Jade Lion and grabbing his sword's handle, slowly forcing it upwards "DIE!" He swung it upwards forcefully and finishing the job, the Jade Lion giving a roar before finally being cut in half, collapsing to the ground falling into shards

"Alright!" Luke laughed "We did it; we beat the boss-"

 ** _N-No you haven't…_** Even through the telepathy, it was clear Xiaomu's voice was filled with fear **_H-He's right there_** **…** then using her nose, pointed towards the temple's entrance.

At the entrance stood a large green statue, about 15 feet tall with a katana sheathe hanging from his waist. His armour had skulls and other markings etched into it, and his katana was the same, markings engraved into the blade and handle

 ** _T-The Jade W-Warrior_** **…** Xiaomu jumped up onto Ross' shoulders, curling up ** _P-Protect me!_**

He shook his head, picking her up and putting her down "Just go hide behind a statue or something, leave it to the badass' to handle"

She nods quickly, running behind a column, crouching low so she could hardly be seen

"So…" The Jade Warrior allowed a little smile to etch its way onto his face, his voice sounding like cracking rocks "Another group of adventurer's who expect to defeat me easily…"

Megan growled slightly, raising both revolvers "We don't expect to beat you easily… we know we will!"

The Jade Warrior chuckled slightly, the echo rumbling around the room "just because you beat my Jade Lions… do not expect me to be as simple as shattering glass"

8 Green Health bars appeared beside him, as well as writing above him reading 'Seta, the Jade Warrior'

"Only eight health bars?" Joel scoffs "that's pathetic, and you're stronger than the Skull Weaver?"

Seta smirked slowly, drawing his katana "do not judge me for my low health… like an assassin, what I lack in health, my combat makes up for"

"Bring it!" Joel runs forward, intending to get the first hit off, although Seta slips behind him swinging his katana, slashing Joel's right shoulder and causing him to stumble forwards

"Luke, skeletons!" Dan turns to look at Luke, before running at Seta with both blades swinging, however Seta slipped under both swords and slashed his katana upwards, catching Dan in the chest and launching him backwards, crashing into a wall.

"Dan!" Ross raised a hand and pointed, murmuring as Dan was healed "don't do a Joel, god damn it!"

Luke throws three glass jars to the ground, watching as the skeletons once more popped out from them and run at Seta, small shields raised

"You think bones can break stones?" A laugh erupted from Seta as he swung his katana, cutting them all down with ease "you will have to try harder than that!"

Xiaomu poked her head out from around the corner, watching the battle whilst thinking to herself **_What can I do? I got lucky with that Jade Lion… unless…_** her eyes gave a light purple glow, before she ran onto the battlefield, running at Seta who laughed, parrying Adam's attack then kicked him away.

 ** _Stone Face! Over here!_**

Seta looked over "Hmm?" he chuckles menacingly, watching "Xiaomu, the Princess' messenger"

 ** _スピリットスフィア_** ** _!_** Xiaomu's eyes began glowing a deeper shade of purple, as a light blue sphere wrapped itself around Seta slowly

"What are you…?" Seta began, before slowly getting the feeling of being slowed down "Gghh… ARGH!"

"Xiaomu!" Megan yelled "What are you doing?!"

 ** _S-Spirit… Sphere…_** Xiaomu was crying out in pain, as Seta was left standing there paralyzed, grunting in pain ** _I-It'll… keep him immobilized… b-but I can only hold it for so long… I-It takes so much energy to hold… a-attack him… now!_**

Ross nods, then runs forward and swings his hammer upwards, striking Seta in the chin, but he didn't go flying

 ** _I… I'm keeping him still… b-but hurry… I cannot keep him still f-forever…_** she paused, screaming in pain as she shut her eyes tightly...


	16. Chapter 16 - Sega Satān, Shiro!

**AN: Hello one and all! Once again, thank you so much for the reviews as they help me improve**

 **Me: And yes Kaboolzle, Xiaomu is based on the very same kitsune from Prokect X Zone**

 **Xiaomu: Hehe!**

 **Me: Anyway, Later! And keep on reading and writing!**

Seta groaned, he was just being forced to stand there and take the pain, watching as his health plummeted to fewer than four bars "Grr… ENOUGH!" and exploded into a dark green aura, evoking a scream from Xiaomu as the kitsune's Spirit Sphere finally ran out and launched her flying through a stone column.

"Xiaomu!" Dan looked over and watched her go through the column, then turned back to Seta "you bastard!"

He smirked; slowly sheathing his katana "at first I intended to fight you all honourably, but now…?" he pauses, pulling the AK-47 off the other side of his waist and the 50-calibur sniper from his back "Now I just want all of you dead!"

"The fuck!?" Joel shook his head quickly "When did a Samurai use modern day weapons, and even guns for that matter!"

"Because this is a video game and doesn't need to follow logic" Adam smiled, then looked over at Seta "but this fight just got harder!" before a voice was heard from behind them-

"あなたはセガサターンをする必要があります!"

"Did… anyone else hear that?" Tom looked around, raising an eyebrow

"Yea, I heard it… but who or what is it?" Dan shook his head

"SEGA SATURN, SHIRO!"

"Oh no…" Dan sighed, "I forgot this was a Japanese floor…"

"What's the problem?" Megan asked

Dan and Joel looked at each other, and where both about to speak when a man wearing a white martial artist costume and a giant game console strapped to his back

"Ah crap…" Dan and Joel both sighed as the man turned to them

"Who the fuck are you!?" Seta roared, aiming his AK-47 at the newcomer and opening fire, although all the bullets bounced off

"You must play the Sega Saturn!" and ran forward, grabbing Seta and throwing him upwards

"You bastards…!" they all watch as Seta flies off

"Uh… thanks?" Megan raised an eyebrow "but… who are you?"

He turns to them "my blood boils with the devotion to play… my name, is Segeta Sanshiro!" then looks over and sees Xiaomu "Xiaomu!" and runs over to her, picking her up "Reiji was wondering where you went"

 ** _I-I'm not that Xiaomu…_** The Kitsune blushed gently, a faint shade of pink on her cheeks and muzzle **_T-That's a different character in a different game…_**

"I see" Segeta nods, then stands turning towards the heroes "You defeated Seta, well done!"

"Well, actually…" Ross began, then shook his head "anyway, thanks…"

Segeta nods "I would stay with you, however…" he looks up at the sky "someone is not playing the Sega Saturn!" and flies off

"Umm…" Tom raised an eyebrow "What… just happened?"

Dan chuckles sweat dropping "No idea… but let's hope this never happen again…"

 ** _Come on…_** Xiaomu murmured, the faint blush on her cheeks still visible let's go back, for now…

And with that, the nine of them head back towards the palace…

"So, you defeated Seta?" Miyoko asked, smiling as she watched them walk in

"Um… not exactly…" Adam shrugged slightly "but, yea, he shouldn't be a problem anymore"

Miyoko nods, smiling "Thank you so much, now the temple is finally clear and-"

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" a voice yelled as it came crashing through the roof, kicking up a large cloud of dust as it landed on the ground

"W-Wha?!" Miyoko stepped back slightly, as the large statue rose from the ground

"YOU BASTARDS!" Seta stood up slowly, cracks now visible all over his body, only having a singular health bar remaining

"Y-You… survived?" Dan raised an eyebrow curiously

"WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?!" He raised the AK-47 at them, loading it "NOW YOU'RE ALL GOING TO-" he paused suddenly, hearing something from above him "Wha-!?"

Seta roared as a large pile of boulders suddenly crushed him

"Where?!" Joel looked around as Seta's health bar finally touched zero…

'Congratulations! You have beaten the boss of floor 57; you received a pair of Jade Knuckledusters!'

There was a scream as the princess ran over to a barely conscious Xiaomu, gently picking her up "Xiaomu! What's wrong, what happened?!"

Luke noticed the light blue star on Xiaomu's forehead glow weakly "Did you…?"

She chuckled weakly, nodding **_I… May have…_**

"Oh, Xiaomu…" Miyoko shakes her head, looking at the barely conscious kitsune in her arms "You over-strained your psychokinesis…"

 ** _Stop… babying me already…_** Xiaomu crawled out of Miyoko's arms and landed on the ground, but stumbled due to the weakness in her limbs

"Xiaomu, please…" The princess murmured, shaking her head again sadly "Don't strain yourself too much…"

 ** _Please… I'll be fine…_** She weakly climbs up to a pillow that was beside the throne **_I just… need a nap…_** she closed her eyes slowly, tails wrapping themselves around her as she was surrounded by a light blue light.

Tom shook his head "Will she be alright?"

Miyoko nods "yes, she just needs to sleep and recover…" she paused, smiling "But still… you defeated Seta, so a celebration is in order!"

Adam chuckled slightly "sure, sounds like great fun"

"Shall I send out the message to hold the celebration tonight?" a voice said from behind them

Joel raised an eyebrow, turning around to face the new voice "who said that-" then pauses "Taro!"

He nods, smiling slightly: Taro now stood there with a light green set of armour on with lion markings all over it, a helmet of the same colour with spikes on the side under his arm, and a beautifully woven yellow katana sheath on his waist. "Friends, what a surprise"

"There you are!" Dan chuckled "I wondered why you didn't follow us…"

"I apologise" Taro smiled in return "but I was busy being made the new head lion tamer, as well as a general of the elite guard"

"Come!" Miyoko smiled, clapping her hands as she walked towards them "We must prepare, for tonight shall be a festival that no one will ever forget!"


	17. Chapter 17 - Legend of the Three

**AN: Hey all! Since next week I'l be busy, I'm posting this week's chapter now**

 **Miyoko: *Drunk* Heehee... I have a tail...!**

 **Me: Anyway... let's continue!**

 **Miyoko and the other girls: *All giggling drunkedly in the background***

Eventually, night fell upon the floor, and the heroes are leaving the Inn as the large festival begins…

"Let's get this party down!" Adam chuckled, as the eight of them walked to the centre of town.

"Adam, if you get drunk and start flirting, I swear to god…" Ross sighed, shaking his head as he raised a hand to his hammer's handle, intending to grab it

"I-I won't! I P-Promise!" Adam stepped backwards chuckling lightly, hands rising in defeat _I'll flirt before I get drunk…_

"Heroes, what a nice surprise… if I'm honest, I thought you would have continued your journey without even saying goodbye" a voice smiled, as Miyoko approached them, followed by Taro and Xiaomu

"Hey, even the greatest of heroes need rest from time to time" Joel smiled "and besides, we'll still escape this death game, even if we take a couple of breaks now and then, what with the front line pushing forwards"

"Speaking of the front line…" Dan murmured, looking at Taro "how come Emily told you about us coming to this floor?"

Taro simply shrugged, shaking his head "I'm not entirely sure as to why, she didn't say anything about stopping you or trying to apprehend you or your friends… but you said that their leader was evil?"

Dan nods "yea, he said that he would be setting the 'final stage' of his plan into action, and even though we have no idea as to what, he had made it obvious that-"

"Do you mean the leader of the Crystal Dragon Brotherhood, Alatheus?" Miyoko looked over curiously, an ear twitching as her tail swished back and forth gently

Tom nods "Yea, him… by the way, when we arrived at the palace, what was he talking to you about?"

"Oh, that…" she paused, closing her eyes as if to think…

*flashback*

"Your highness…" Alatheus smiled, getting down onto one knee "I have heard of how there has been a recent tragedy regarding the head of your lion tamers, Seta"

The princess nods "Yes, and it is not just that… we have also had a lot of issues recently with those… 'Team Skullz' thugs, is it true that they are the third best guild in the game?"

Alatheus nods, a small frown forming on his face "unfortunately, yes… it is true, however…" he paused, then looked back up at her "I am told that you have a sacred piece of equipment… the shield of souls?"

She nods, then turns and raises a hand to the sealed container behind her "yes, I am the keeper of the shield, and am only allowed to pass it on to those who have pure-hearted purposes…"

"That is why I am here today…" Alatheus stands "I am here to prove my reason to obtain the shield… you see, my intention is to keep everyone in this game safe, and I will not stand for such selfishness from the likes of Team Skullz"

Miyoko nods curiously "and if I am correct… the Crystal Dragon Brotherhood is the best guild so far?"

He nods "yes your highness" and turns, looking from her to Alpha squad, then back to the princess "and these fine young men and women are here to help me, as well as the 55,000 members we have within the guild". He pauses, allowing a small smile to form "we only wish to keep the peace between everyone and make sure they enjoy this game, even with the threat of death around every corner…"

"I see…" she nods, then turns to the sealed container "Yes… I believe that you are worthy…" and walks up to it, gently pressing a hand to it as the container slowly opened.

She paused, before putting a hand in and taking out the shield, that was circular and dark blue in colour with terrified faces and skulls carved into it, with a pulsating blood red orb in the middle of it.

"The Shield of Souls…" Alatheus murmured, as she walked up to him, carrying the shield "for you, sir Alatheus…"

He smiled slightly, taking it and putting it into his inventory "Thank you so much, my dear…"

*end of flashback*

Miyoko nods "and then all of you arrived at the palace with Xiaomu"

"The shield of souls…?" Tom raised an eyebrow "sounds like a pretty powerful item…"

She nods again, "it is, it's one of the three legendary items…"

"The three legendary items?" Megan raised an eyebrow curiously "What are they?"

 ** _Allow me_** A voice smiled as Xiaomu jumped up on to Miyoko's shoulder and looked at them, smiling slightly **_The three legendary items are, if you hadn't guessed, legendary items that are scattered among the 100 floors of the Everhollow tower. She pauses, looking between all of them The Weaver Blade, also called 'The Weaver of fates' is dropped by the Skull Weaver…_**

 _The Weaver Blade!_ The eight heroes looked among themselves worriedly, remembering the sword Alatheus took from the floor after beating the boss, before looking back at Xiaomu as she continued-

 ** _The Shield of Souls was protected by the princess here, although she seemed to have gave it to the first good-looking guy that passed through this floor-_**

"Xiaomu quit lying!" Miyoko yelped, a deep blush on her cheeks as she shook he head quickly, looking at everyone "T-That's a lie! I-I swear!"

Xiaomu rolled her eyes as she continued **_And the amulet of awakening is given to a random player, which can push a player to unleash their true potential called 'Burst State'_**

"Alatheus has two of the three items!" Joel yelped suddenly, getting a strange look from Miyoko, Taro and Xiaomu

"What… do you mean?" Miyoko asked curiously

"Alatheus helped us to defeat the floor 50 boss" Tom explained, looking at them "and got the Weaver's blade as a reward from it, and if you just said he got the Shield of Souls…"

Dan nods "Damn, then Alatheus just needs…"

"The amulet of awakening…" Ross muttered, finishing the sentence as the eight looked among themselves.

Miyoko nods slowly "He must be really determined to see his dream get achieved"

Taro nods "true" then notices the eight heroes getting ready to leave "don't you intend to stay?"

Luke shakes his head "We can't, now that we know Alatheus is nearly ready to activate-"

Miyoko smiles, shaking her head "surely you can stay for the night at least? It is not like this 'Alatheus' fellow will find the Amulet of Awakening so quickly, now will he?"

 ** _You know, for once she has a point_** Xiaomu smiled, jumping off the princess' shoulder and stretching **_it's not like he'll have the three legendary items so quickly, now is it?_**

"You know; she might have a point" Dan shrugged

 ** _Of course I do_** , she smirked, jumping up onto Dan's shoulder **_See? He understands that I'm always right_**

Miyoko smiled, "Please… you've already got a big enough head as it is Xiaomu, don't let a boy's words influence that any more than it already is…"

 ** _Are you implying that I'm big-headed?_** Xiaomu jumped off Dan's shoulder and walked up to her **_I have you know that-_**

Taro chuckles "the same as always…" then looks at the eight of them "sorry about those two… they never seem to stop arguing half the time about something or other…"

The eight of them smiled, before starting to laugh with Taro as Miyoko and Xiaomu argued through most of the night…

The next day…

"Thanks again princess" Adam smiled "we'll be on our way now, and-"

"H… H-Hold it!"

They all turned as a farmer approached them, his clothes were torn heavily, he was badly bleeding and he was level… 5?

"What's wrong?" Joel raised an eyebrow as he stopped in front of them, panting heavily

"F-Floor… Floor 1…!"

Megan walked over, putting a hand on his shoulder "breathe, breathe… now, tell us… what's wrong?"

"Floor 1…" The farmer paused, taking a deep breath before exhaling quickly "Floor 1 is being attacked!"

"Wha!?"

"Guys, change of plan…" Tom drew his sword and shield, as they all started to run to the teleportal in the centre of town "Let's go hold off floor 1!"


	18. Chapter 18-Live behind the Crystal Walls

**AN: Yo one and all! I won't be here next week/week after because I'm on holiday! (Again) So I won't be able to post until I come back**

 **Emily: *sweatdrops* A slight warning, this chapter is much darker than others**

 **Vince: I... don't think they care...! *begins laughing***

 **Me: Anyway, later!**

A girl is whistling as she leaves the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her head, drying her light blue hair as she walked into a bedroom that looked like it was made for two people, with two single beds either side of the room, before there is a knock at the door-

"Can I come in?"

"Sure Emsy" the girl giggled in reply

"Vince…" Emily muttered as she opened the door, walking into the room then turning around and closing it "What have I said about calling me that?"

"You haven't said anything to me about it" The young girl smiled as she finished doing the straps on her gloves, towel chucked to the side as she finished putting on the leather gear that was the guild's 'Off duty uniform'

"I've said before that-" Emily pauses suddenly, realising what Vince had just said "Wait, I've never had a go at you for calling me that?"

"Nope" She smiled as she sat on the bed that was on the left side of the room and bent down to do the straps on the sides of her boots

"Oh…" Emily paused, a small smile on her face as she shook her head, blushing faintly "Sorry for that"

"No prob" Vince smiled as she stood up, then looked over at Emily "you still in your combat gear?"

"Yea, just had to train one of the new healers" Emily sighed "he's a stubborn bastard too…"

Vince rolled her eyes "They always are, with their 'You need me to stay alive!' and 'I'm more important that you, protect me!'" then paused, laughing

"Vince, are you ok…?" Emily walked over; putting a hand on Vince's shoulder, "I mean… you seem more… normal than usual…"

"I'm perfectly fine" Vince smiled, and then pointed towards the bathroom "Get in the shower, now"

"But Vince-" Emily had begun, before realising Vince was pushing her towards the bathroom

"No 'buts' about it, I'm not having my bestie sit around in her combat gear because she's too lazy to get off her fat ass and-"

"I get it, I get it" Emily rolled her eyes "Sheesh…" and walked into the bathroom, locking the door behind her

Vince gave a small sigh, and stood up, walking towards the mirror that hung in the bedroom "Sometimes I wonder…" she murmurs, looking at her reflection; and saw herself… her hair was done up in a ponytail, pale skin with freckles on her cheeks and the same chest-nut brown eyes staring back at her "Am I who I really think I am…?"

"Who are you talking to Vince?" Emily called from the bathroom "Have you finally got yourself a boyfriend, can I meet him afterwards?"

"I'm talking to no one, you eavesdropping git!" Vince called out, laughing "are you sure that you're not Megan's rival and I'm Dan's?"

Emily had suddenly gone quiet because of his mention, and Vince knew it, smiling to herself "I'm gonna go for a walk, see ya later!" and stood up, before she started skipping towards the door

"How long is Later-?"

*the door slams as Vince leaves*

Emily sighed, shaking her head "crazy girl…"

Vince sat in the large garden behind the Brotherhood's headquarters, holding a cloth and her sniper lying across her legs, gently rubbing the gun with the cotton cloth

"You know…?" Vince murmured to herself, as she put the cloth to the side and picked her sniper up, holding it to the light to make sure it was clean "your one beautiful gun" and put it back on her lap to inspect it.

The entire thing was about 9 FT long and was a beautiful shade of dark purple in colour. The barrel had a beautiful wyvern carved into it, where the tip of the head was at the opening of the barrel and the tail stretched all the way down to the trigger, the scope was slightly bigger than an average scope with a blue cross in it. The centre of the cross being open and like the barrel, the scope had a wyvern carved into it, but unlike the barrel one, this wyvern looked more aggressive, with the head being carved going down from the scope to the top of the barrel, and the tail also being carved into the trigger.

She picked the sniper up, aiming at a bird that had landed in a tree and pulling the trigger, watching as the bullet sped towards the bird, taking its head off as blood spurted everywhere, the body of the bird dropping out of the tree and landing on the ground with a splat

"Just like always…" A small smile formed on Vince's face, brown eyes shining in amusement as she watched the bird's body fall

"Ah, my dear…" a female voice muttered from behind her "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Vince went quiet, paling "M-Miss Readings…" and slowly turned around, facing the other woman who had seemingly appeared from nowhere.

The woman was shorter than Vince, who stood at 5 Ft 7 and had a grey cloak on, brown eyes having a happy shine to them, she appeared as if she was in her late fifties "Ohoho! How long has it been since you called me by my actual name?"

"Oh, you!" Vince huffed, blushing lightly as she crossed her arms "this is why I stopped training with you… Grandma…"

"Tsk, the only reason you stopped training was because you got too big for your boots"

Vince stood up; slinging her gun across her back "I only wear boots off duty", she smiled playfully, tilting her head playfully.

Miss Readings simply shook her head, smiling "Child… you still have a crazed sense of humour…" although her thoughts were different… _When did you become so… distant?_

"I better get back to the room, knowing Emsy she would be worrying, although the amount of times that I've said that she never needs to worry…"

"Emsy?" Miss Readings smiled "you mean that sweet girl you share a room with, Emily?"

Vince nods "Yep, bye grandma!" and runs over, hugging the shorter woman quickly before running off

"Oh, my dear…" Miss readings murmured, watching her granddaughter run off while shaking her head sadly, "if only you knew what would be happening soon…"

Vince eventually slowed down, thinking to herself _That dream, it couldn't have… No, I-It… couldn't have been… been a coincidence… no… it…_ She slowed down, eventually stopping _No… I don't want to lose my only family… I don't want to lose grandma… I don't… I can't_ She slumped to her knees as tears began forcing their way out of her eyes and down her cheeks "No… I-It can't happen… I WON'T LET IT FUCKING HAPPEN! I'LL KILL EVERY DAMNED PLAYER TO STOP IT!" She looked down, punching the ground as sobs were forced out of her, shaking her head…

Emily looked over as she heard the door open, and looked over to watch the girl walked in, hair covering her face "Vince… you ok?"

"We've been called out on a mission…" Vince walked over to her bed, opening the bedside cabinet and taking out her cartridges of ammo for her sniper as well as her knife, putting it into the sheath on her waist.

"We have?" Emily stands up "What's this about?"

"Floor 1 is under attack by monsters, come on…"

"Vince, what's wrong? Something's off-"

"I'm fine!" Vince turned to Emily angrily, fresh tears visible as they streamed down her cheeks "just come on!" and ran out the door, putting the cartridges in her inventory

"Vince…" Emily stood up, picking her staff up as she changed into her combat gear "please… tell me what's wrong…" and ran outside, following Vince…


	19. Chapter 19 - Battle for the Floor Part 1

**AN: ONCE AGAIN, I apologize for the lateness of this chapter! 0_0' Exams and all that are keeping me back, as well as lacking ideas, etc.**

 **Joel: Yeah and he somehow managed to make all the coding show and not work so his beta had to spend an hour fixing it.**

 **Me: Fuck you.**

 **Joel: No, fuck you, you beastiality indulging bastard.**

 **Vince: How about... THE PAIR OF YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LET THE READERS READ, YOU FUCKING PAIR OF WANKERS!**

 **Alatheus: Well, now that that's over... it's time, is everyone ready?**

 **Dan: Hell yea! Let's kick some ass!**

 **Me: Well Readers, you've heard it from them... read on!**

* * *

"Gah!" Dan jumped backward, barely avoiding the great sword that the patroller swung at him "D-Damn it!" he looked to the others, they had all been defending the town for hours, and all that had happened was that the players had been steadily pushed back by the increasing monster.

"W-We can't keep this up!" Tom yelled, turning and raising his shield quickly, deflecting a couple of arrows from some skeleton archers "We've been fighting non-stop for five hours and we've made zero progress!

"Come on! We gotta keep this up!" Ross ran forward, slamming into a mechanical roach with his shield, causing it to stumble backward and crush a couple of skeleton soldiers

Megan looked over at a yell as another three players were killed "No!" then turns to Tom "What are we gonna do now?"

"I have no idea-!" Tom paused, then pointed, yelling "Megan! Behind you!"

Megan turned suddenly, eyes widening in fear as a hellhound was about to bite her- but suddenly it was knocked flying by a powerful blast "What…?"

"Sorry, we're late!" Alatheus smirked, the members of Alpha squad behind him, and then behind them- about 20,000 members of the Crystal Dragon Brotherhood "did we miss much?"

"Nah, not much" Joel smiled sarcastically "ONLY FIVE HOURS OF HELL! Why didn't you get here sooner, baka?"

"We had a bit of… 'Interference' from Team Skullz…" Alatheus allowed a small sigh to escape

"But now we're here to save the day!" Vince giggled, aiming upwards and zooming into an approaching harpie, the bullet hitting its head and watching as its body falls to the ground, blood spurting

"Men!" Alatheus smiled, raising his sword into the air "Charge! Let's take out these bastards!"

There were roars of cheers from the guild as they all moved forward to take on the seemingly endless hordes of monsters

"Emily!" Alatheus turned to her "lead the magicians! Chew through the first lines!"

She nods in reply, raising her staff and summoning her wolf, which stood beside her "Understood!" then points towards a group of slimes "Go!" and watches as her wolf runs towards them, teeth bared as it snarled

"Thgif meht ta lluf thgim! peek gnicnavda!" One of the patrollers screeched, raising its spear as it ran at Tom who rolled to the side, slashing sideways with his sword so that he cut into the backs of the knees, knocking the patroller to the ground before raising his sword and putting the blade through the patroller's head

"Even with this backup, can we hold out much longer?" a female player called out, raising her shield above her head to protect herself from the harpies trying to claw her eyes out

"Hopefully, I mean…" Joel murmured, "What happens if the beginning floor goes? What about the new players-"

He turns, hearing a roar as he watches Mason tear through groups of skeletons and slimes with his machete and his bare

Megan jumped backward, dodging a swing from a mechanical roach; landing beside Vince "Didn't think we would be working together, hmm?"

"It was always a possibility" Vince murmured in reply, then runs forward and slides underneath a centaur and pulls her knife, dragging it across the creature's stomach as she went under it

"How much do you guys wanna bet that we only last another hour or so?" John smiled, dashing at a skeleton and sliding underneath it, catching its leg with his knife causing the skeleton to stumble sideways

"To be honest John-" Tom paused, grunting as he raised his shield, blocking the great sword that was swung at him by a patroller "I wouldn't like to bet on our survival right now, because… you know… the threat of death from everywhere!"

"Well, this could be-" Joel had begun, then slid underneath a Centaur and sent it upwards with a Shoryuken

"Don't you dare!" the other seven yelled, turning to him "What? This could be worse-" Joel paused, hearing the growl from behind him "well crap…" he rolled forward, narrowly avoiding the hammer swing from the patroller then jumped over a slime

"See?" Dan shook his head, looking over at Joel "you jinxed yourself… and probably the rest of us as well!"

"Well, sorry!" Joel snapped, "Sheesh, I'm not that bad" he quickly turned, getting ready to dodge a mechanical roach when three bullets pierce its head from the side, stumbling sideways and collapsing as the corpse dropped to the ground "What?" Joel looked around quickly, before seeing her-

Vince smiled from the roof she was on, and waved "saved your ass, again"

"I Gotta admit, you're good with a gun" Joel shook his head, then smiled saluting back

Vince nods, and then gets back down on her stomach, taking aim at another harpy and pulling the trigger, getting yet another headshot and watching as its body fell to the ground, its blood spurting everywhere...

Meanwhile, in a dungeon below floor 1…

A pair of pink eyes snapped open, angling its head upwards and looking at the ceiling as a low, harsh growl escaped its mouth, its forked tongue slithering out and tasting the air around

Another two pairs of eyes snapped open beside the first, the other two heads looking upwards as well, tongues poking out and moving around, tasting the air as if it was testing it

The large creature forced itself to stand, shaking its body to remove years' worth of dust, dried scales and who knows what else as its tail whipped back and forth slowly, before letting out a blood-curdling screech that was amplified as the other two heads let out the same blood-curdling scream.

It spreads its large, leathery wings out and shakes them down before letting them spread out to their full length, as from tip to the creature's shoulder each wing was about 20 feet long as it let out another screech. It had begun to shake its wings as it began to take flight slowly, looking upwards as it heard the noises of a large battle on the ground above, which was the reason it woke up in the first place.

The middle head looked at the ceiling and took in a deep breath, before expelling a large blast of black flames and melting the reinforced concrete with ease, spreading its wings out and flying through the hole it was making, intending to escape its prison and join the noises that it heard from the battle above it...


End file.
